Children in State Care

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:30): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Does the minister agree with the Guardian for Children and Young People in her annual report that currently on a day-to-day basis children who are in state care are harmed or at imminent risk of harm from poor decisions by her department?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:30): I thank the member for her question. The guardian obviously is responsible for children who, under guardianship, contact her office and seek her support and help. We know that the system was in a bad way. We know that from the royal commission in 2014, and we know that from the inquests and the Coroner's inquiries and the Mullighan reports, that this was a system in crisis. That's why this Liberal government announced that we would have a dedicated minister to work on this system. Even Margaret Nyland herself indicated that this would be at least a five-year turnaround to make changes that are necessary.

I am doing a lot of work on every single area. We have approached this as a whole of government. Not only are we working on early intervention, which was mentioned by the guardian, but for the first time we are investing up-front in strengthening families and building supports so that fewer children will be coming into care. That's through the human services department. As the guardian actually mentioned, it's good to see that investment for the first time in early intervention and prevention. The guardian also pointed out—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe and the member for Waite!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —that there was a lack of forward planning, everything was knee-jerk reaction and responsive. As a whole of government, we are working on a systemic plan, a whole-of-government plan. Part of that is the early intervention and prevention through the Department of Human Services. We know that under the former Labor government the early intervention research directorate—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated for one moment.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That is debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: There's a point of order for debate.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order on the point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: When the question is phrased in a way such as 'does the minister agree that', there are a range of ways that a minister might reflect on whether or not she agrees and therefore that point of order is not valid.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members, please! The Minister for Transport is not assisting at this point in time. The question had several aspects to it: whether the minister agreed with comments made in respect of the annual report. I think the minister was doing a relatively fair job at sticking to the substance of the question. Whilst I do allow some compare and contrast with former governments to a point, I will listen carefully and make sure that she doesn't deviate too far.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: As the guardian also noted herself, it's like turning around the Titanic. We are making significant improvements. On coming into government, we closed the Queenstown 12-bed facility. This was a decade of recommendations by a previous guardian saying that you should not have large bed facilities. In fact, the Labor government not only ignored that but they built an extra 12-bed facility and had plans that were ready for me to sign on incoming for another 12-bed facility so that government has no track record on looking after our children. I have closed our most troublesome unit, the Queenstown unit. We have opened up Aboriginal-specific and culturally competent houses. We have taken on more Aboriginal community-controlled organisations. We are doing extensive work to address the over-representation—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Reynell is called to order.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —of Aboriginal children in care and we are making significant changes. We are currently researching and investigating therapeutic residential care models that are world's best practice around Australia and overseas to look for better models of care. What we do know is that the models of care that were being used under the former government and that I was left with on coming into government as the minister were not working.

We are improving them bit by bit. Every single house, we are improving. We have capped the numbers so that our larger bed facilities aren't at full capacity. They are kept lower so that we can supervise and look after our children a lot better. Our staff are undergoing specific training around recognising and working with risky behaviours, including sexualised behaviours. We are doing a lot of work and we will continue to work hard to improve outcomes for children and young people in care.