Child Protection

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:56): Supplementary: given the minister has expressed concern about this circumstance of under 10 year olds being in this type of accommodation, can she tell the house whether, in the time she has been minister, there are fewer or more under 10 year olds in these circumstances?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:56): I can't unambiguously answer that because I don't have figures by age with me, but it is very likely that there are more because there are so many more children in out-of-home care. We have gone from about 2,800, when I became minister, to nearly 3,300 under guardianship, and we have not been able to keep pace with KinCare and foster care, so we have seen a proliferation of the number of kids who are not in family-based care. It is a source of enormous grief to me and I ask that we all work together to improve the system to make people want to be foster carers so that they can offer a home for these children.