Child Protection Screening

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (15:18): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. What mechanism does the education department have in place to ensure that parents who have previously failed police checks to volunteer in schools are not now volunteering in their children’s classrooms or coaching sporting teams, given that police checks are no longer required?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (15:19): I will confirm what internal process is in place but I would just take this opportunity to make two points: one is that if people are questioning what requirements are necessary, as I should have added into my previous answer, they can check on the website, a very handy way of clicking through what category you are in. The other point which is more important in this context is that having a police clearance or a working with children screening clearance is no guarantee that children are safe. It is a useful additional piece of information, and that is why we have it, but by no means ought it be seen as a guarantee.

What we need to do is make sure that we have ways in which children are cared for by everybody around them to keep eyes on them and to make sure that people are responsible for how their children are looked after. So, while it is important to have these clearances under certain circumstances, their presence or absence should not be regarded as the only gatekeeping for the safety of children. Everyone is responsible, everyone needs to be watching children. We need to make sure that we run our organisations in a way that promotes as much safety and security as possible for parents.