Question Time

Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. Why has it taken so long for this government to recognise that the child protection system is in crisis and has fundamentally failed the children of our state?

The SPEAKER: I detected some expression of opinion there, but it does give the Premier a lot of scope.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:18): It does, sir. In fact, the first use of the word 'crisis' I recall in relation to child protection was actually in a report that was censored by the previous Liberal government when we came into government. Within three weeks of coming into government, the former minister for social inclusion, the member for Ashford, commissioned the Layton review which ultimately led to a tripling of the amount of resources that we put into child protection.

Every single time, every single report we have commissioned in relation to child protection has been done at the behest of this government, whether it was the subsequent Mullighan review, whether it was the subsequent Debelle review, or whether it was the Nyland review, which is presently underway—all of them initiated by this government because we take this area of endeavour most seriously. So, rather than simply allowing this debate to occur in an uninformed way, we have asked for independent expert analysis and exposed ourselves—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —to the highest level of inquiry. I notice the honourable member mentions the recommendation concerning Robyn Layton in relation to the children's commissioner. We, of course, want to implement that, but we are being opposed—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It's deadlocked because the opposition are proposing a different model from the one recommended by commissioner Layton. The reason why we haven't put it forward is because we have been asked by Commissioner Nyland to await her final recommendation. That's the essence.

In relation to the question of responding to challenges in the child protection system, I think it could be fairly described that the system feels as though it is in crisis. Certainly, a lot of the workers do feel that way. But we need to remember that this phenomenon of child protection systems being in trouble is one which is an international phenomenon. The simple truth is—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The simple truth is that there should be no ambition for a child protection system to stay out of trouble because it simply is not possible. What you are asking people to do is to make judgements about the future conduct of human beings, and necessarily, even with the most conscientious judgements in the world, they will be found to be wrong judgements from time to time.

If there is a culture of oppositions and commentators creating a sense of blame and crisis in the system every time something like this happens, we will never attract those qualified and conscientious people who do some of the most difficult work in government—that is, going into families who are unwilling or unable to care for their own children and making conscientious judgements about how to support those families or, that most brutal of decisions, to take a child away.

The truth is that this is the most difficult area of government. We are determined to get it right. This gives us an opportunity for a fresh start, and I ask those opposite to accept, now that we have a shared position on this, in a bipartisan way the opportunity to reform the system.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The members for Adelaide, Kavel, Davenport, Unley, Chaffey, Morphett, Hartley, Morialta and Mount Gambier, the leader and the deputy leader are called to order. The leader, deputy leader and members for Adelaide, Hartley, Morphett, Unley and Morialta are warned a first time. The leader, the deputy leader and the members for Hartley, Morialta and Adelaide are warned a second and final time, and some of the screaming by the member for Unley during the Premier's answer was a gout on the reputation of this parliament.