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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-02-19 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

CHILD PROTECTION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:15): Do I get the call? I am standing. Is that how it works?

The SPEAKER: Not drowning, just waving.

Mr PISONI: I am standing. Do I get the call?

The SPEAKER: I am afraid there is a forest of people standing on the opposition side because they are now leaving the chamber, as they are entitled to. The member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: I thought it was disorderly, sir, to discuss just what members of the chamber were doing.

The SPEAKER: You are right.

Mr PISONI: We have just heard the education minister trying to explain the unexplainable in answers to questions in question time today about another child protection issue—another failure by this government to notify parents and to act on the statutory rape of another student in the school. This is the fourth education minister in three years that Labor has delivered, and things are not getting any better.

Let us have a look at what has happened with education over the last three or four years. KPMG, last year in February, released a report that highlights that the Department for Education had a culture of bullying and cover-up. This report, of course, was to do with occupational health and safety issues, in particular, within the department.

Then, in October last year, after weeks of extensive investigations, the Liberal Party was able to expose to this parliament with, of course, the help of a brave mother who came forward to tell her story about the sexual assault of her children at the western suburbs school, that parents were not told for two years that Mark Christopher Harvey, who was charged in December 2010 and convicted in February last year, had raped an eight year old in his care when he was running the out of school hours care.

For two years, the governing council wanted to tell those parents just what had happened and, for two years, the department bullied and intimidated the governing council, telling them they were not to discuss the events of that day outside of the governing council meetings and that, under no circumstances, where they to tell parents that there was a—

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley, would you address the Chair, please?

Mr PISONI: Certainly, Mr Speaker. For two years, they threatened parents and the department said that the minister would remove the indemnity that governing council members have and they could be sued and lose their houses if legal action was instituted because of the comments they made about their children being in the care of a paedophile.

The Premier's response to the questioning was to set up an inquiry and then, of course, to use the inquiry as a reason not to answer any further questions on this issue. Other parents then came forward. We heard about the lack of support and empathy from the department for victims. It was often the victims who were asked to change their behaviour or to move schools, not the perpetrators.

The minister was forced to reveal that there were at least five other schools where parents were not told that an employee had, in fact, been arrested and, in many cases, convicted of sexual offence charges against students. The former education minister, Grace Portolesi, did such a poor job in handling this issue that she was removed from the portfolio after—

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, would you please be seated. We will give you extra time. It is a deplorable development in parliamentary debate that we start throwing in, in this case, unnecessarily, the names—Christian name and surname—of members. There is good historical purpose for keeping personal names out of it and using the member's electorate or the member's ministry, and that is to avoid personal offence and quarrels. So, would you please comply with the standing orders and the custom and tradition of the house? Member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The member for Hartley, minister Portolesi, did such a poor job handling the issues—

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, would you please be seated? You just flagrantly—flagrantly—defied my ruling. If you do it again I will be forced to suspend you under the sessional order.

Mr PISONI: There is a complete understanding of why the government is trying to shut down debate on this issue. First, it was with the Debelle inquiry. Any questions from the media, any questions from the opposition, and the minister and the Premier would stand behind the Debelle inquiry. The new education minister, the member for Wright, talked tough when she took over, and she said she would not accept any more excuses. She was told of the new school sexual assault on the day after the arrest when she was police minister, yet she let the file sit on her desk unattended.

She told the media that it takes time to identify students who are participants in the program, but she should know, as the education minister, that each school has a list of students that participate in such programs, as such funding relies on it, and a call to the five schools that use that particular NGO would have given anybody in the department who wanted it, including the minister, that information within about five minutes.

The minister was then pushed to admit that the alleged rapist had a previous conviction that should have prevented him from having access to schools. We have learnt today that the conviction was, of course, indecent behaviour in front of a woman and child. Who takes responsibility for the fact that a child has been sexually assaulted because of poor processes? The DCSI officer was moved sideways—so no responsibility there. So, is it the CEO who takes the responsibility or is it the minister who should take the responsibility?

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