Child Protection

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:29): I rise to speak about the recent events regarding the Hillier case and the call from the Liberal Party and from Belinda Valentine, the grandmother of Chloe Valentine, for an independent investigation. Yesterday, minister John Rau came into the house and gave a ministerial statement and at no time did he mention, as he did today, that the case has also been referred to the royal commission. I am unsure as to why the secrecy surrounding that and why that was not just mentioned in his ministerial statement.

I also note that the royal commission is only to report on broad terms. It is not actually meant to be a case-specific investigator. I am also concerned, if the government uses the royal commission, which has already been delayed twice, to keep adding and adding individual cases, which was not the intention, about when we will ever get a report back and whether the government will continue to hide behind the royal commission, using it as an excuse not to do anything.

As we know, this government has a history of failure in child protection. We have had the house of horrors, where it was highlighted that different departments do not talk to each other, coming from interstate, that there is no national database and that there is a need for information sharing. We need to know that things have changed after a horrific incident. It is the opportunity to look at the workings, the policies, the procedures and the resourcing to see what could be done differently and what could be done better to make sure the same things do not happen again.

In the case of Jarrad Delroy Roberts, we saw that truancy was an indicator of a child who could be at risk. In this instance, two children died on a school day at 1.30 in the afternoon. Had there been a history of truancy? Was that recorded and was something being done about that? What did we learn from the Jarrad Delroy Roberts case and are we implementing that to make sure it does not happen again?

We had the baby Ebony case, where it was discovered that the father had a previous history of domestic violence. Had the perpetrator in this instance, Steven Graham Peet, had a history of domestic violence? Was he living in the home? Given that he was living in the home with children at risk already who were known to the department, had they investigated the change of risk? Was there further risk? We need to know the answers to these types of questions about what procedures are in place and what is happening.

Were the Coroner's recommendations in the Chloe Valentine case fulfilled? Point 14.6 of the Chloe Valentine recommendations stated that there should be an investigation into the background of parents of the child or of any person in loco parentis to the child. Therefore, if Steven Graham Peet were living in the home, it should have already been done. It was one year ago that that recommendation was made, one year ago that this government accepted the recommendation and one year ago that the people of South Australia believed that the government would be implementing that recommendation. So, was it? We need to know that things have changed.

In the Chloe Valentine case, we know that a drug safety plan was implemented that actually allowed a 16-year-old child to take drugs. That is completely unacceptable. We do not let people take drugs and drive a car, let alone take illicit drugs and raise children. Was the Aboriginal Sobriety Group involved? Was there help available to this mother? What supports were around her and in place? How long had Families SA been dealing with this family and why did they arrive on the day and leave the children in place?

The PSA is stating that Families SA is 200 people understaffed. John Rau, the minister, is disputing that there is any resourcing issue, yet the union is threatening strike action if more people are not employed immediately. We need to know what is happening. We hear announcements. Two years ago, it was announced that there would be 300 extra residential care facility workers after the Shannon McCoole incident so that people external to Families SA would not be employed. Have they been employed? We do not know.

Individual case workers were supposed to be employed and the recruiting was supposed to start last March, and we hear today it is ongoing. That was 15 months ago and it is still ongoing. This government makes announcements, it agrees with findings and we believe that something is being done. I do not think it is, because why does the same thing keep happening? We have lost another three people from our world, including two innocent children, due to a lack of progress in this area.