Children in Care

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. How many shifts in residential care have gone uncovered this year?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:45): Clearly, I wouldn't have that kind of operational information. However, I will say again about the state that I was left: 279 vacancies that were used, as I am told, to hide the budget blowouts that were experienced by the inefficient, incompetent Labor government running that department. However, we have heavily recruited. We have more staff recruited and retained than ever before. We have the lowest number of vacancies—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Reynell!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —being 52. We have more residential careworkers than ever before; 41 came on recently, 11 of those in Whyalla. We now have training every two months with TAFE. We have new intakes coming up in March, April and June. We are doing everything we can to fill the vacancies to take the pressure off the staff. I thank the staff for their tireless work. I know that they took on this job because they want to care for and protect children and that sometimes that means looking after children out of hours because we are looking for homes for them.

If you are interested in being a foster carer—1300 2 FOSTER, fostercare.sa.gov.au—we are looking for homes to place these children in. The reason staff are working back to look after them is while we are looking for homes for them. We are looking for foster carers. We have done an amazing job recruiting foster carers. We had net 82 in the 2019-20 year, a net increase of 52 the year before and we already have 42 to the six months to the end of December. We have more family-based carers than ever before.

We also need more residential care staff, so if you go to the I Work for SA website, we are recruiting. This is the first time a government, as far as I am aware, has continual recruiting for residential careworkers. We are trying to fill the vacancies, so—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Reynell!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —to anyone who did lose their job in January, we are looking for people. Please apply.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Hammond, the member for Reynell is warned.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader is warned for a second time.

Mr Pederick: Any day over here is better than any day over there, mate.

The SPEAKER: The member for Hammond will not respond to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The member for Hammond will not respond to interjections.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader is warned for a second time. The member for Hammond will not respond to interjections. The member for Hammond has the call.