Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:26): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Given the former CEO David Waterford said a lack of staff resources resulted in 50 per cent of child abuse notifications being prematurely closed, can the minister guarantee there are now no child abuse cases closed before completion?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:26): No; as has been discussed previously in this chamber, last year as well as early this year, I believe, there are notifications that are made that are then not proceeded to investigation, and there are multiple reasons for that occurring. If the suggestion is around the staffing of Families SA, as I responded a week or two ago in this chamber, we are very earnestly working on meeting our FTE cap. We are in the order of around 100 staff off that now, out of 1,900, and that is absolutely crucial to our being able to fulfil our responsibilities.