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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-27 Daily Xml
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CHILD DEATH AND SERIOUS INJURY REVIEW

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (16:09): My question is to the Minister for Education. Will the minister confirm that, three years after becoming aware of the 'house of horrors' instances of severe criminal neglect when he was the minister for families and communities, there was still no investigation commenced into those matters, and did he know at the time of saying that he was referring this case that he would have to outwait the criminal investigations?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability) (16:10): My understanding of the events were that the Minister for Education referred this particular case to the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee. They were prepared to review that, and checked with the police about whether this should be undertaken or whether there would be a problem. The advice they received from the police—and I will point out that there is a police officer on the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee, and that they were aware through media and other reports that there was a police investigation—and the advice from the police commissioner was that they should not proceed because there was the likely contamination of evidence. They have since, however, been advised that they can now proceed with that review, and I understand that, in fact, if they had gone ahead with it, they wouldn't have had all the information they needed to do a comprehensive review anyway.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Bragg!

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Bragg, you are warned.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Bragg, you are warned for the second time.

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