Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier now take urgent action to appoint a commissioner for children and young people, as his government promised would be delivered by the end of 2013?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:35): I don't know whether the honourable member was listening to my previous answer because he would know the answer is no. Here's the history—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, here's the history of the matter. We decided to put forward a commissioner for children and young persons which was modelled on the recommendations of commissioner Layton. The opposition decided they had a better idea and wanted to amend it to give it some additional responsibilities—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's what we're waiting to find out.

Ms Chapman: Why don't you ask her?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, we have.

Ms Chapman: Why don't you ask her?

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader will withdraw for the remainder of question time under the sessional order.

The honourable member for Bragg having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We have asked her, and she's asked us to wait.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, now the opposition leader seems to be either suggesting that either myself or Commissioner Nyland is being less than truthful. I think it's a dangerous set of propositions, but if she wants to advance that I will let her do that. We were asked to wait until her recommendations to take further steps in relation to that. If she recommends a particular model, we will obviously give it—

Mr Marshall: You promised it by the end of 2013—before the royal commission was even established.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Yes, that's right.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Would the leader like to join the deputy leader?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That's true, and if you had simply agreed to the model recommended by commissioner Layton it would be law. In the desperate attempt to play politics with child protection, those opposite wanted to hang on to a point of difference.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir, standing order 98: the Premier is clearly debating in his labelling of the motive going on.

The SPEAKER: For what?

Mr GARDNER: The Premier's accusation that the opposition is playing politics with child protection is clearly debate. In addition, members find it offensive.

The SPEAKER: I think if the accusation of playing politics in parliament were taken out of Hansard, it would be a much skinnier volume.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir: the Premier is responding to a question asking whether he will take urgent action to appoint a commissioner for children and young people and, in framing the debate, accusing the opposition of certain tactics as being why he hasn't done that. That is debating.

The SPEAKER: That matter of the commissioner has been before the parliament habitually in the past few years. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It's pretty germane, to the point, why isn't there a commissioner for children and young persons, because the model that's being proposed by those opposite is inconsistent with the model recommended by Layton, and if they had accepted the model proposed by Layton it would be law. The simple answer is: there would be a commissioner for children and young people if they had decided to simply accept the recommendation of an authority that they are fond of quoting when it suits them but are happy to disagree with when it suits their political convenience. That's the simple answer and, because it then got caught up with the royal commission, it's now going to be considered across a range of other matters.

The truth is at the time, the reason we didn't we have a—I think I was child protection minister at the time who was responsible for choosing which of commissioner Layton's recommendations to act on—what we chose to do instead was to actually upgrade the role of the child protection advocacy body, or advisory body. There were two bodies: the child interests bureau and the child protection advisory council. We decided to amalgamate them, give them powers of advocacy, and that ended up being essentially the advocacy body for children à la a children's commissioner.

There are still ambitions for there to be a children's commissioner, so we said we would act on that. We obviously are attracted to the model that commissioner Layton recommended. Now, of course, I think what Commissioner Nyland wants to do is to consider all of these various advisory bodies, such as the council for children and young persons, and also the Guardian for Children and Young People. She is going to consider all those and make a recommendation about what the model should look like in the future.

I just met with Belinda Valentine, who is obviously a strong advocate for these matters, and she suggested a potential circuit-breaker was the folding of some of these roles into the operations of the guardian for the child and the young person. That may or may not be what is recommended by Commissioner Nyland, but I think we should await her expert recommendations.