Child Protection Department

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:23): My question is to the Premier. Why is staff morale the Premier's measure for a successful child protection system, rather than keeping children safe?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:23): It is because our front-line staff are at the centre of our child protection system. They are the people who go in—

Mr Marshall: That's your number one priority?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It is, actually. It is, because they are the people—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I know those opposite don't care about the morale of our staff and are prepared to attack our child protection workers at every turn, but the truth is that the last person who seeks to help is the first person they accuse, and they have been pointing the finger at our child protection workers for years and years and years. This is some of the most difficult work that occurs in government: going into difficult families, going into places that many of those opposite would not dare to even actually go near—would not even dare to put themselves in this position.

Mr KNOLL: Point of order, Mr Speaker: 98 and 127.

The SPEAKER: No.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Those opposite, who feign this concern for these poor impoverished families where some of the most difficult and awful things happen—it is galling. I must say that I did enjoy the lecture we had from those opposite in the same radio interview, I might regard, from the Leader of the Opposition who said this was a crisis for 14 years. He said that this had been going on for so long and there hadn't been—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: 'Hear, hear!' they all say. Well, where was the child protection response from the Liberal Party of South Australia in the 2014 state election campaign? Zip, zero, nothing. Zip, zero, nothing for child protection centres. Where was the money? Where was the pledge? Where was the pledge in the election campaign of the additional resources that these children need? Zero. Where did the money go? To the big end of town: big land tax cuts, big handouts to the big end of town. This is—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, that's right. Those opposite will be looking at those people who actually step up and look after some of the most impoverished families, some of the families that are facing the biggest challenges in our community. What we know is that the front-line workers in our state who actually go into these families need our support. They need to make courageous decisions about whether to leave children in families, because it is a brave decision to leave a child in a family where you believe you can strengthen that family and ensure that that child is safe, or an equally courageous decision to remove that child from a family, which can be a brutal decision.

It is a brutal decision to take a child from their birth parents in the interests of that child. That is why the morale of our child protection workers, their understanding of their role, that very clear remit they have to put the interests of the child front and centre, is an incredibly important measure of success and an early measure of success. There is much to do in this system, but the first thing we need to do is make sure that those workers on the front line have the confidence and the support necessary to ensure that they are going to be a successful agency and that our children are safe.