Child Protection

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): Supplementary.

The SPEAKER: No. That will be your fourth supplementary. How about just a question?

Ms CHAPMAN: Please? Minister, given that we now know that the royal commissioner's report is not going to come down before August this year, why don't you pick up the phone or make an appointment with the royal commissioner and get her advice about whether some action should be taken to look at, audit or inquire as to what is happening in your own department until then?

Mr Marshall: Hear, hear! Stop using it as an excuse.

The SPEAKER: Deputy Premier.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:34): Mr Speaker, I was trying to share information with the house a little while ago about a very interesting visit that the minister and I had this morning with the royal commissioner. For those who weren't listening very carefully when I said it before, I'll just go over the ground again.

We went to see her. It was a very cordial meeting, and the conversation turned to whether or not the royal commissioner was likely to make any interim recommendations or if she had come to a conclusion so clearly at this point in time that she could share it with us now so that we could get on with whatever we needed to do to, first of all, inform our cabinet colleagues about that, secondly, form a government view about that and, thirdly, if necessary take whatever steps we needed to implement that.

Ms Chapman: If children weren't dying that would be laughable, John.

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is called to order.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: And so, I thought, the impression I got, was that the royal commissioner was amenable to that proposition, and she said—I'm not meaning to attempt to quote her word for word—to paraphrase her: okay, look, if there are things that I get to, which are so clearly going to be things I will recommend to the government, I'll share them with you so that you can—

Mr Marshall: It doesn't exonerate the minister from taking action to run her department—

The SPEAKER: The leader will be silent. His next utterance outside standing orders will see the sessional orders applied to him. Deputy Premier.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Mr Speaker, the point is this: as things stand presently I have only the vaguest of ideas as to exactly what Commissioner Nyland will ultimately recommend. If the minister were to take her staff down a particular path now in ignorance of what Commissioner Nyland might say, there would be a number of consequences of that which were not satisfactory.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: No, look, they've asked a question; I'd like to try to answer this. The first point would be this: it might be that we wind up taking a direction which the royal commissioner ultimately does not endorse and we have not had the benefit of hearing her reasoning as to why we shouldn't do that—point number one.

Point number two: change is difficult, Mr Speaker. Change is difficult and it requires enormous effort for it to be successfully managed. The notion that the minister should be embarking on major change now, which might need to be redirected or even undone in a few months, only possibly resulting in further confusion and lack of satisfaction in the jobs of the people—I don't think it is prudent for the minister to be contemplating taking the department off in some direction without any regard to what the royal commissioner might say, because we don't have the benefit of her views; and, Mr Speaker, if we were to take that path and it turned out to be at odds with her, what are we then going to do? Wrench the steering wheel another 180 degrees for the staff?

Members interjecting:

Ms CHAPMAN: Supplementary.

The SPEAKER: Before the supplementary, I call to order the members for Stuart and Kavel. I warn the members for Morphett and Hartley and the deputy leader and the Treasurer. I warn for the second and final time the members for Morphett, Hartley, Unley and the deputy leader, and, strictly, the members for Morphett and Unley should have been out already, with the number of interjections, but I will give them one more chance. The deputy leader.