Child Protection

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Is the minister satisfied there is no under-reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect cases during the COVID-19 crisis?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:31): I thank the member for her question. Certainly every year, and it's quite standard, as teachers and support staff are one of the most common mandatory reporters, during school holidays there is always a significant drop in notifications. We know that in April this year we had an extra four days of holidays because of learning online and because of the COVID pandemic.

So there was an extended period of time that we had fewer mandatory notifiers with their eyes seeing the children at school, which is one of the reasons why the education minister and the government were very keen, with the support of the children's commissioner and the Guardian for Children and Young People, that children should be going to school where possible. It is expected, as the holidays were longer. Everyone is back at school now, or the majority of children are, so we expect that to return to normal.