Child Protection

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:21): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Attorney-General on the topic of the implementation of coronial recommendations relating to child protection.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: After the murder of Amber Rose Rigney and her brother Korey Lee Mitchell in 2016, a coronial inquest was undertaken. In the judgement the Coroner said:

What this inquest has highlighted, however, is the folly of governments ignoring coronial and other recommendations. I speak again of course of the continuation of unlawful practices within the child protection authority despite coronial findings in the Valentine and Napier inquests that identified those practices.

The Coroner then went on to discuss the issue in this inquest, that issue being the death of those two children, which was quoted as the 'non-adherence to statutory obligations imposed on the child protection authority due to alleged resource deficiencies'.

The Trust in Culture report, led by Kate Alexander, was created as a result of that inquest, and looked into government's progress in implementing recommendations from previous child protection coronial inquests. This report found that the government needed to develop an 'urgent strategy' to ensure that the system functioned effectively.

My question is: what are the ongoing steps that have been taken to ensure that recommendations made in coronial inquests are implemented and maintained in child protection?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:23): I thank the honourable member for her question. I note there are reports tabled to the parliament in relation to actions that have been taken by ministers in relation to coronial inquests. If there are specific areas of this inquest I would be more than happy to seek answers from the minister responsible in the child protection area and bring back a reply for the honourable member, whether by way of a supplementary question or outside the question time process.