Question Time

Child Protection

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Premier. After 14 years of promising to fix the state's broken child protection system, why should South Australians trust the Premier to deliver this time?

The SPEAKER: The tenor of the question gives the Premier a great deal of scope. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:27): The reason why people should have faith in this government to deliver on reforms to the child protection system is that, at every step of the way, whenever there have been challenges in our child protection system it has been this government that has subjected itself to the most comprehensive inquiries to examine the system. Can I contrast that with what I was told by those child protection advocates when we came into office, and that is that when they were presented with similar descriptions of crisis in the child protection system they were told to actively redact that from the reports they sent to their ministers. So, that is the contrast.

That is a government that is prepared to be open and accountable for challenges that occur in relation to a system, and an opposition who is addicted to hiding and running away and not confronting the real issues that face our state. This is one of the reasons why the community should have confidence. The other reason why the community should have confidence is that we have consistently increased the amount of resources going into our child protection system, most dramatically with our announcement today of the $432 million commitment of resource to this system.

At every step of the way, when the most vulnerable people in our community—our children who could not be cared for in their own homes—were seeking support, it was this government that supplied the resources necessary to ensure their care and protection. That is why today, when there have been further cogent requests for resources to supply this system, we have answered that call. We have been open, we have supplied the resources.

Thirdly, we have applied ourselves intelligently to one of the most complex public policy issues that confronts any jurisdiction. During this period of 14½ years that those opposite have been occupying those benches, almost every jurisdiction in Australia has, at one point or other, faced its own child protection crisis. Indeed, many of them have faced multiple crises. It is the fate of a long-lived government that they are, from time to time, going to have to confront these challenges in our child protection system.

The truth is that there is no jurisdiction in the world that doesn't confront the challenges of dealing with child protection. All those systems, the ones that are most successful, apply themselves diligently and intelligently to learning the lessons about what has gone wrong and are making steps to ensure their systems improve. We are devoting the resources necessary to protect families and children to allow them—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I think anybody who is listening to this or witnessing those opposite realises there is only one group that could have confidence in implementing these reforms—and it is this side of the chamber.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the members for Morialta, Flinders, Schubert, Mount Gambier, Hartley, Adelaide, Stuart, Morphett, Finniss and Davenport. I warn for the first time the members for Morialta, Schubert, Hartley, Adelaide, Mount Gambier, Morphett, Finniss, Stuart and the leader. I warn for the second and the final time the members for Morialta, Hartley, Schubert, Adelaide, Finniss, Stuart and the leader. The members for Morialta, Hartley, Schubert and Adelaide all committed breaches of standing orders that go well beyond three warnings. They are on notice that the jig is up.