School Absenteeism

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (14:43): A final supplementary: in relation to the minister's promises in relation to truancy and, in particular, the policy announcement in the Friday Advertiser a couple of weeks ago, can the minister identify when the government took that decision to seek to increase the fine to $5,000 and introduce a system of expiation notices, given that when we discussed this matter in estimates the minister suggested that maybe the expiation notices were not going to go ahead?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:44): I think what I suggested in estimates was that the expiation notices might well form part of a draft piece of legislation but weren't necessarily set in stone because we do want to do consultation on that.

This piece of legislation has been in the pipeline for some time, and all of those features have been part of that. What I am interested in is which are going to be the most effective. My view is that we put them all into the draft piece of legislation and hear back, and also go through the prosecutions that are currently under consideration, or are currently live, and see where we land in order to have the best possible legislative framework for attendance, generally, and specifically for prosecutions.