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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-18 Daily Xml
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CHILD PROTECTION

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:09): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister inform the house of the South Australian government's achievements in protecting vulnerable children and young people?

The SPEAKER: Minister, I hope you heard that question.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Education and Child Development) (15:10): I would like to thank the member for Ramsay for this very important question. It is with enormous pride that I rise in this place today to outline and to remind this house of this government's very significant commitment and investment to children and young people's safety, and I must acknowledge the member for Ashford in this regard.

This government has fundamentally reformed our child protection system, making it a priority for our entire community. The most recent reform of bringing together the Department for Education and Child Development, integrating the work of our social workers, our care workers, our teachers and our health professionals, means that we are again at the cutting edge of ensuring that every child has their very best start in life. But let's look to this government's significant history of investment in child protection.

Mr Pederick: Tell us about the NAPLAN.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: Only weeks after coming to office in 2002, this government commissioned the most far-reaching review of our child protection system here in South Australia, a review undertaken by Her Honour Justice Robyn Layton.

Ms Chapman: And Robyn Layton would be appalled at what you've done with it.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: This government has, since that time, more than doubled the number of social workers in Families SA, which means there are more than 1,500 FTEs overall, all working to protect our community's most vulnerable, our children. The Layton review identified that the budget, that we inherited under the previous Liberal government, for child protection was around $90 million. Today that budget is now more than $300 million, and that funds services offered directly by government as well as the non-government sector. That is a doubling of our professional social worker workforce and a tripling of the state's budget for the care, protection and welfare of children and young people. So, just for one moment, let's imagine the impact of losing 25,000 positions—

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order: the minister has just said 'let's imagine losing 25,000 jobs'. That's clearly hypothetical.

The SPEAKER: I will listen to the minister's answer. I am sure she meant 'if we lost'. Minister, I refer you back to the substance of the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: I don't think I imagined what happened last week when the Leader of the Opposition declared—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister.

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: —the slashing and burning of our public sector.

The SPEAKER: Minister, back to the question.

Mr Pederick: I don't think I imagined the NAPLAN results.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: But in any case—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Minister for Transport, order!

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI: But in any case, our much valued, highly valued public sector workers do incredibly important things like: attend to calls to the Child Abuse Report Line (incredibly important), investigate allegations of abuse and neglect, and provide social work services to children and young people in care, and I spoke about that very matter when I was in parliament a couple of weeks ago. Keeping our children in our community safe is incredibly important. I have to say, everybody in this place would acknowledge that this area of government is perhaps one of the most complex and challenging, but can you imagine how much harder it will be with 25,000 less workers?

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