Childcare Services

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:54): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Has the minister been informed how long the 15-year-old youth who killed Mrs Tucker was missing from his accommodation before the incident?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Higher Education and Skills) (14:55): I have sought advice on the appropriateness of discussing details about this child/young person under guardianship, who, indeed, remains under guardianship although also, we see, in custody, and the advice I am receiving is that I need to be extremely careful about what I provide given his status both under the juvenile justice system and also under protection of the guardianship of the minister, myself. So, I do not wish to canvass details of this individual's situation.

I have sought, I believe yesterday, and I'm happy to expound further today on the way in which the Department for Child Protection manages the children and young people—young people primarily—who occasionally walk away from the places that they are staying in, whether they be in foster families or in residential care facilities.

The advice in the consents and decisions document, which is the document that's provided not only, of course, to all departmental staff but to those who are carers of children under guardianship is clear that the case manager is the person who will make a decision about whether or not to inform the police, though I understand that informing the police is reasonably routine in the case of children who go absent from residential care facilities. But there is a recognition in that document of a variety of circumstances which will alter the way in which the departmental staff and the carers will consider the way in which to respond to the absence for a period of time, and obviously the period of time is part of the question.

The reality is—and it's a sad reality—that there are children under guardianship who absent themselves from the place that they are staying in. It is also the reality, of course, that that happens in biological families also. But, given the level of trauma and trouble for children under guardianship, it would not be unexpected that that would be more frequent for children and young people under the guardianship of the minister.

Nonetheless, in recognition of that the department has a process to go through taking into account the circumstances of the child and the circumstances of the absence, those are the broad policy terms in which I would prefer to answer this question in order to not imperil the rights of the young person under guardianship and in custody.

Ms CHAPMAN: Supplementary, sir?

The SPEAKER: We will come back to you. The member for Napier.