Child Protection

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Has the mobile telephone policy been updated to reflect the discovery that young people can search in 'incognito browser' hiding their search history?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (15:03): I did speak about this earlier; however, there was a lot of noise coming from the other side. Our department is currently undergoing a trial with Telstra. We have a proof of concept mobility solution for children and young people in care for both mobile data and voice uses. This project was developed in consultation with Telstra to roll out devices with software aimed at providing effective cybersecurity safeguards through the use of mobile device management technology, mobile application management and content filtering.

In recognition of the mess that had been left in the Department for Child Protection, our government appointed the first ever child-dedicated Minister for Child Protection and we have rolled out significant changes throughout our time that obviously they are not interested in at all. When we came to office, to speak of the fatigue and the difficulties, I would like to thank all our staff. I make a big effort to visit DCP offices in the country, as well as in the metropolitan areas, to thank the staff, to meet the staff and to speak with them about their ideas. They all have great ideas on how we can improve things.

Every single one of them I have met is there because they want to improve the lives of children and young people. They are compassionate and they are dedicated and I thank them for their work. I do know that this is one of the hardest jobs that they could have in government. When we came to government, there were 279 vacancies in the department, which led to the overworking of our frontline staff. They had immense case loads and they were under a lot of pressure, not to mention the toxic culture of bullying, standover tactics and retribution that they worked under.

It was a tick-box situation where they weren't encouraged to make defendable decisions. They were told how to behave and they were in fear. I am working very hard to change that, to encourage them to make defendable decisions and to think about the individual circumstances of the child. We have reduced the vacancy rate down to 52 from 279, which is taking off the pressure for the frontline staff. We have more work to do. I want that to be zero, and we will continue working hard.

We also have increased our number of social workers by 229 and 48 extra case managers. As a result of our broadening the qualifications policy, we have appointed 70 extra professional officers, which include 53 new hires and 17 existing employees who have been promoted. We have more staff than ever before in this department to take the pressure off and to deliver good outcomes for our children. We have more staff in residential care than ever before and we are continuing to recruit, so if anyone is looking for a job in child protection we are recruiting, so please look us up.