House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-09-25 Daily Xml

Contents

CHILD PROTECTION

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): A supplementary question: I accept that it is not in that letter—not that I have seen that. My question is whether there is any correspondence, to you or to your department, requesting an investigation into the fact that there is an alleged breach of the mandatory reporting requirements under the Child Protection Act.

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:21): Not that I am aware, but I am happy to take that on notice and have the department and my office do another check. I am not aware of any. I have told the house the correspondence that I am aware of.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I am happy to take this on notice and go back and check, but I have quoted—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE: I am getting rubbish from across the chamber. I am happy to take the question on notice and go back and check. The correspondence that we received initially was headed 'Investigation into mandatory reporting'. I have already read to the house how they have referred to an investigation but are not requesting an investigation as far as I understand this letter to read. The response from the Parent Complaint Unit provided information that was requested about mandatory reporting, provided information about where the parents could get additional information and provided a contact number for the customer services manager from Families SA.

Again, can I just say how distressing this must be for this family. My chief executive officer, as I requested yesterday, contacted the family and had quite a lengthy discussion with the family, and we hope to have further meetings with them this week to work through their issues. There are clear discrepancies in the information that has been provided by the school and that being relayed by the family. We are happy to work through those issues and get to the bottom of them.

Mr Pederick interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for the first time.