Child Protection

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Why doesn't the contract between the Premier and Cathy Taylor include a performance agreement that obliges interagency collaboration in child protection matters and measures that performance as per recommendation 244 of the Nyland royal commission?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I don't think the Deputy Premier has offered the leader or the opposition any provocation yet, so I could only respond to the leader by enforcing the sessional order. I wish to hear no more from him. Deputy Premier.

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:51): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Yesterday, as the Leader of the Opposition has indicated, he asked me a question without notice about the contract, and I gave some information about that which included that I was not privy to the negotiation, nor had I seen it, but I have good news. Overnight, I asked for some information to be provided to me about the contract. I have not yet seen it, but I'm reliably informed by a reliable source—

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon: Doubly reliable.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Doubly reliable and if it turns out not to be reliable he will be hearing about it, but I think he is reliable. This source told me that the contract agreement between the Premier and the future chief executive indicates, as I believe all contract agreements between the Premier and chief executives indicate, that it is required that the chief executive sits down in due course with their minister and settles on performance criteria for the forthcoming year. The reason for that is that—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: If I could just go on and explain that—

Ms Chapman: It says nothing about this interagency collaboration.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I'm getting to that point. I'm trying to chop it up into bite-size pieces. What happens is that the contract itself has a bit in it that says—and I will paraphrase this for you—'See this bit later. They are going to chat about it and write it on a separate piece of paper.' That separate piece of paper, which is called the Performance Agreement—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I am trying to be helpful, Mr Speaker.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Is this okay, is it?

The SPEAKER: I call the Treasurer to order for dissent in the Chair's handling of this situation.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I warn the Treasurer.