Question Time

Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection Reform. Why has it taken 13 years for this government to realise that children should be at the centre of our child protection system here in South Australia?

The SPEAKER: Well, that question is asked in such a truculent manner that I will not be surprised if the minister responds in a similar manner which will not be conducive to good order in the house. Minister.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform) (15:00): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and tempted though one might be to respond appropriately, I think this is such a serious matter that even though it was a provocatively framed question it requires a considered and measured answer. The fact is—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: That's better. The fact is that over the last few years there have been significant changes in relation to the framing up of legislation regarding the protection of children and indeed, as a person who has been acquainting myself in some detail with these matters for some little time now, I am aware that there were a raft of legislative changes that went through the parliament in about 2005 and those legislative changes, if you read them, have actually had the effect of substantially recalibrating the focus of the legislation between a focus on families as being the predominant and overwhelming determinant of what is to be done to move it substantially in the direction of the welfare of children. Indeed, I would invite the Leader of the Opposition and anybody else who wants to study this to have a look at what the legislation looked like before 2005 and how it was changed in 2005.

The opposition leader's question was directed towards a 13-year time span. I would like to direct his attention to a time span of some little more than 13 days since the Coroner's report was handed down and, since that report was handed down, the government has moved very swiftly to first of all consider at cabinet level what the response to that report should be and, secondly, to get on with making administrative changes within the department and also to bring to the parliament quite comprehensive changes in the legislation which will be introduced tomorrow and which deal with and pick up all of the recommendations that have been brought forward by the Coroner.

If the substance of the criticism being forwarded towards the government by the Leader of the Opposition is that 13 years ago the government was not aware of what the Coroner was going to say 13 days ago, I think we have to plead guilty. We did not know what the Coroner was going to say, and so we have been very keen to listen to, absorb and act upon the recommendations of the Coroner and, when the legislation that I have given notice of today is introduced tomorrow, I think everyone will see that that is going to be very much the case.

I would hope that we will receive the appropriate level of support from members opposite to get that legislation through because that will help the government to refocus not just from a policy point of view but from a legislative point of view everybody's attention on the welfare of children which we absolutely agree is the main priority in all of these cases. In the end, what we are on about is the welfare of children, and we have made it very clear that we are not going to have criticism of our present system given by the Coroner and us do nothing about it.

The SPEAKER: The members for Heysen, Adelaide and the leader are called to order and warned a first time; the deputy leader is warned a first time; and the members for MacKillop, Goyder and Morialta are called to order. Leader.