Child Protection

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Did the minister issue a directive recently to the Department for Child Protection and, if so, why? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TEAGUE: On 26 March 2025 The Advertiser reported that the minister wrote to the Chief Executive of the Department for Child Protection, making Donald Trump-like demands.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right, we will hear the minister in silence.

Ms Savvas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Newland, I just said that we will listen to the minister in silence. You are on your final warning.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (14:34): I thank the member for the interesting question. The answer is that asking the department to carry out particular reforms is really what a minister does. It is about getting on with the job.

As has been spoken about already in this chamber this afternoon, we are utterly determined to get on with the job because I deeply, deeply feel worried about the fact that, for many years in South Australia, one in three children have been reported to the child protection and family support system at some point in their lives. Over many years, we have seen an increasing complexity of issues that those children's families are experiencing. Over many years, again, we see the impact that those issues have on children. Whether that is their experience of domestic and family violence or whether it is their experience of intergenerational trauma playing out in their home, it is incredibly saddening.

I am utterly determined to stay the course and to make change. That is exactly what I should do. That is exactly what I am doing. The issuing of direction to my department is absolutely part of getting on with asking them to make the changes that we wish to see. As the Premier said, I am here to make reform. It is very interesting what those opposite and that comment allude to, and that is that clearly, it seems, the opposition do not support a number of things that we are getting on with.

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders will come to order.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: I presume that they do not support the changes that we are making through legislation, through direction to the department and through the establishment of my ministerial youth advisory council. It sounds like they do not support that we are privileging the voices of children and young people so that they are meaningfully and appropriately consulted in relation to decisions about their care.

We are getting on with the job of implementing in policy and process, and hopefully in legislation, the embedding of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle to the standard of active efforts, as stakeholders have called for. We are expanding family group conferencing so that, over time, all Aboriginal families are offered the opportunity to participate in a family group conference. We are ensuring that carers are being offered the opportunity to be part of case reviews. We are introducing specific quality of care guidelines.

These are significant reforms. We hope they progress through the comprehensive legislation that we have. In the meantime, we are getting on with implementing them in practice, policy and procedure—of course we are. The recent RoGS data, the figures that they did not mention, is that we are seeing extraordinary results, leading results in the nation, around stability in terms of placements and in a range of other areas.