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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-23 Daily Xml
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CHILD'S DEATH

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (14:29): My question again is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Given the minister has indicated that she may have asked questions and she will not be disclosing those, is the minister satisfied on the information that she has received, if anything, on the way that her department handled that intervention in the case of the four-month-old-baby who died earlier this month?

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (14:30): I thank the member for Bragg for her question, because it gives me an opportunity to talk about this government's commitment over many years to child protection, as well as reiterate my position, which is that the family was known to Families SA. It is now in the hands of the police. They have a very important job to do. I will not be compromising that case. As I said a moment ago, I am very happy to talk about systems and institutional arrangements, for instance, and that is precisely what I am going to do now—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —because in any measure this government has a very proud record when it comes to child protection and supporting families. For instance, this government introduced the Guardian for Children and Young People to cast an independent eye over matters involving children in care. We established a special investigations unit. We introduced a Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee to examine child deaths and serious cases of harm and recommend ways of preventing this. We established the Council for the Care of Children and we established the Health and Community Services Complaints Commission. I want to work with the opposition when it comes—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —to child protection matters, but they have demonstrated their incapacity to work in a bipartisan way on a number of issues. This is very disappointing, but nonetheless I will persist.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order: 98, entry into debate. The minister has been asked was she advised. She is not answering the question.

The SPEAKER: You don't need to justify the question. The minister has finished her answer.

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