Question Time

Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:10): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Is the government aware of the welfare and whereabouts of the two-year-old girl whose aunty, known as Dawn, has raised concerns in the media today?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development) (14:10): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I will attempt to provide as much information to the house as I can about this particular case. As members would be aware, we went through a process of identifying all of the children who had been in the care of this particular worker. Certainly there has been a lot of work and contact with the carers and parents of those children who have been identified as victims by the police in this particular case, but there are also children who have been in his care and we have yet no advice that in fact they are victims.

In an abundance of caution, again, we are attempting to contact all of the parents and carers in relation to those young people. It has not necessarily been an easy exercise and I am advised that the little girl the leader refers to, we understand, is living interstate with her father. She is no longer under any form of custody order. She was united with her biological father, having been removed from the care of her mother, and the department is attempting to contact the father to advise him that this young girl had been in the care of the Families SA worker.