Child Protection, Rice Inquiry

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:31): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding child safety. Minister, can you understand the community being horrified that, as the minister for the lead department for the safety and wellbeing of children, you appear to take no responsibility and no care for the children under guardianship who were pregnant when the Rice review was conducted?

The PRESIDENT: I will call the minister. It's getting close to asking the minister for an opinion, but I will call the minister.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:32): I just find that offensive. I find it downright offensive that the Labor Party tries to portray anybody as not caring about these people. They come in here with dumb questions that they just want to portray people in a particular light for their own political interest. It has nothing to do—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: It has nothing to do—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway doesn't need to assist me either. The minister has the call.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: It has nothing to do with any genuine concern about the wellbeing of any of these children that they are talking about. My department—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Ms Bourke! And the deputy leader! The deputy leader, I thought, would be interested in the answer.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: I think what the members opposite don't understand is that the Department for Child Protection—children who are in that system are called in statutory care. Statutory care is defined by legislation. We can all go and sit and examine that, and we can have another open-book exam with the child protection legislation in front of us so that we can point out to the Labor opposition—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. Scriven interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order, the deputy leader!

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: —that children in care are the statutory responsibility of the Department for Child Protection. My department has a number of programs which are in the pre-statutory phase, where we are supporting families whose children are at risk of being removed, and we are supporting them to, as best as possible, remain with their families going forward, where that is determined as the safest and best outcome.