House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-15 Daily Xml

Contents

CHILD PROTECTION

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): Given that the minister has explained that she met with the family on the 27th of last month, can the minister explain why it took the chief executive until 11 October to actually arrive at this decision for an independent inquiry and, indeed, why was that decision made late on a Friday afternoon when the minister was on holidays?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:22): I said in this place last time, and I think the chief executive reiterated, we were not going to do anything that was going to jeopardise the prosecution. This matter is before the courts, and so the chief executive officer sought the advice of SAPOL and he sought the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Once we had that advice, he referred it to the Ombudsman.

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: And I call the member for Kavel to order.