House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-08 Daily Xml

Contents

Child Protection

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:40): Further supplementary: given that this child was able to access, apparently, the Safe Babies Program and have access to respite and independent agencies, are you satisfied, notwithstanding that multiple notifications had been made about this young girl prior to August 2011, that there was no need to make any changes to your department to deal with cases which clearly have identified that there was a problem? Given all those circumstances, is it your view that there is no need to make any changes to the way your department operates as a result of the disclosure of the death of this child?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development) (14:41): I will take advice from the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee, which is independent. It is made up of very eminent people who will interrogate this case very, very carefully. They will provide recommendations to me, as they do on a regular basis, as they review cases where children may be harmed through a variety of ways, including, for example, swimming pool deaths, which has been an area that they have made recommendations that we have acted upon, and road safety issues in relation to the way children are harnessed in cars. I am sure that this will have their very close attention, and they are the people that will give me the recommendations.

I am not a professional social worker; I do not have the qualifications to make clear assessments about social work processes, but we have an independent body that was not in place prior to 2002 that will do that. In the main, the recommendations of the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee have, as I understand it, been acted upon.