Foster Care

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:38): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Can the minister please inform the house what support for foster carers is in this year's budget?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (15:38): I thank the member for King for her question and her continued interest in this very important topic. The Marshall Liberal government, as we heard yesterday, has delivered a strong budget to secure South Australia's future. Cleaning up the mess in child protection and protecting the state's most vulnerable young people and children is an absolute priority of this Liberal government. In the budget, we have allocated $8.8 million over the next four years to increase the payments to foster and kinship carers from age 18 up to now 21.

We know from research that children who stay at home in a family environment have far better long-term benefits, including better employment prospects, improved physical and mental health, reduced risk of homelessness and drastically reduced incidence of alcohol and drug dependency and reduced interaction with the justice system.

We also know, and records show, that 30 per cent of children leaving care were homeless within one year of leaving care, which is an absolutely shocking statistic and something I don't want happening on my watch. So I am very proud that the Treasurer agreed to this funding—the $8.8 million over four years—and that this was an initiative of the Liberal opposition at the time that has now been delivered.