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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-02 Daily Xml
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CHILD PROTECTION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:23): A supplementary, if I may.

The SPEAKER: If it be a supplementary.

Mr PISONI: Now that there are five alleged victims of the school care worker at the centre of the Debelle inquiry, will you now make an application to lift the suppression order?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:23): I have a sense of deja vu about this.

The SPEAKER: You do.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Can I say to the member for Unley: if the next three or four questions are exactly the same as the last three, then—

Mr Pisoni: Maybe you didn't know there were five and that's why you're so casual about it.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Member for Unley, there is nothing casual about this at all.

Mr Pisoni: Only the way the government is handling it.

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Unley to order.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: I repeat, at the moment—just so everyone is clear about this, and this is my understanding of the situation—the individual concerned is imprisoned. That individual is, by reason of being imprisoned, not a present threat to any child, by reason of their imprisonment.

Mr Pisoni: You've already delayed justice by two years by not telling the families.

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

The Hon. J.R. RAU: If the member for Unley or anybody else is of the view that it is in the public interest—

Mr Pisoni: Why won't you do it?

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for Unley for the second time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: If the member for Unley or anybody else is of the view that it is in the public interest for the name of this person to be published, then they are entitled to go to court and ask for it and, can I remind the member for Unley, as the member for Unley seems to be intent on telling me how many potential victims there are to this, the court, in assessing whether or not the name of this person should be published, would have had a very careful look at whether the publication of this name would do anything possibly to make it even worse for those victims or alleged victims by reason of having publication of the name of that individual made and, thereby, perhaps, draw a link between that victim and that individual, and that is what this law is about.

So, let's be very clear about this. This business about why not publish the names, why not publish the names: if the member for Unley wants the names published, he can go and ask for that, but I caution the member for Unley and anybody else who thinks this is such a frivolous matter that you can just fill in time in question time about it. Just remember, there are child victims involved here and the publication of the name of the offender may—may—tend to identify those child victims, which would considerably aggravate what is already a terrible situation for those child victims. So, member for Unley, if you want to go down there and tell the court it is in the interests of those child victims, in particular, to have this name published, you go right ahead, but I am not going to do it.

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