House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-06-04 Daily Xml

Contents

CHILD PROTECTION

Mr PISONI (Unley) (14:50): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. As the chair of the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee said last week in relation to the 'house of horrors', 'Our job is not to look for: did anybody do anything wrong?' will the minister explain whether any review has been conducted to see if anybody did do anything wrong?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:51): Just to finish the quote of the chair, she in fact said:

Our job is not to look for who did anything wrong, although we certainly would have said so if we had made such an observation.

The Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee had access to something like 200 documents, and its conclusion was that not one person nor one department had the entire picture about this Parafield Gardens family, and the six children who were the subject of the police charges were hidden from all agencies. These people were despicable. They did everything they could to deceive anyone who had anything to do with them. The police conducted a very thorough investigation. Six people were charged and they were gaoled, and rightly so.

The SPEAKER: Before the supplementary, I warn the member for Kavel for the first time. He has been repeatedly interjecting. A supplementary from the member for Unley.