School Absenteeism

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:57): Supplementary: given that, what evidence does the minister have of the efficacy of the results of convictions?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (15:57): Fortunately, in both cases the one thing that we really wanted to happen was that the kids went back to school, which they did. That is all we could ask of those kids, that they go back to school, and they have. It may be that there is also going to be an exemplar effect, that other families who have felt that, without a prosecution for a number of years, they were able to continue to ignore all the other efforts being made by their school and by the department. It may be that they reflect that they now need to take it more seriously. We will see whether we come across any evidence, but those children are now attending school where they were not previously, and that pleases me enormously.