Child Protection

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Could the minister explain to the house what step-by-step processes she has put in place with her department to ensure that critical cases get urgent attention? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TEAGUE: On 18 May 2022, The Advertiser reported that a 13-year-old child living in a child protection department facility was found unconscious for five hours after ingesting pills allegedly sold to him by a teenager. The article reports the minister as having stated, and I quote:

On becoming Minister, I immediately commenced rigorously examining systems, procedures and processes to ensure that improvements are made with and for children in care, and have already commenced making change. My stringent focus on this work will absolutely continue.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:01): I thank the member for his important question. On becoming minister, I made a deep commitment to be as open as possible about the complex and incredibly difficult issues that children and young people and their families face and the complexities that impact child protection.

It is crucial that as a community we are honest about the significant challenges faced and that our community discourse identifies the problems we encounter. Getting the balance right between always ensuring early preventative action and intervention to strengthen families, and that balance between removing children when they are unsafe in their family homes, is at the core of this complexity.

In contrast to the previous minister, I intend to tackle getting this balance right. I intend to speak openly about those issues, and I encourage others to do the same. It can, of course, be difficult to give detailed particulars about individual children, particularly when criminal proceedings are occurring. However, I will provide as much information as is appropriate to balance the need for transparency and the need to also protect children's privacy.

It was and is devastating to hear about the trauma that child had experienced. That child has been firmly on the radar of the department for some time, and I have received updates about his situation since the first week of my becoming minister.

It is really important, as the member has articulated, to make sure that when situations like this arise that we do, as I stated in this place and as I also stated in the media, rigorously examine systems and processes and procedures to ensure that improvements are made with and for children in care. I have, as I have stated in this place, and as the member rightly pointed out, begun to make those changes so that those processes are better.

From day one, I began to ask repeated questions about procedures—for instance, relating to notifiable incidents and about a number of other procedures. We know that former Judge Rice found that, in relation to the previous minister, there was 'significant failure' on the minister's part in relation to the previous minister's practice for being notified about incidents and for inquiring into support in relation to those incidents.

In contrast, immediately on becoming minister I asked for information about the existing notification procedure that was in place post the Rice review, and I immediately made changes to improve that procedure. I made it abundantly clear that I wish to be advised about particular incidents and also about what actions have been taken when incidents do occur, what support systems were in place and being provided to the young person, whether appropriate statutory authorities were involved and, every time, what system improvements could be made, including any preventative measures that could have been implemented.

I asked many, many questions and also asked the department to ensure that the immediately improved critical incident settings were implemented. I relentlessly questioned the department to seek assurance that children and young people who have experienced an incident receive the care and support they need and that all relevant statutory authorities are involved. At each and every weekly meeting, I ask about those systems, processes and procedures, and I will continue to do so.