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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-05-05 Daily Xml
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Farah 4 Kidz

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:39): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister advise why it took a recent Today Tonight report about Farah 4 Kidz for a thorough government investigation to be launched, leading to its suspension as a family day care provider, despite the minister and her department being made aware of the child safety concerns and allegations of fraud 12 months earlier?

The SPEAKER: I am not sure that question is in order. We don't normally do promos. The minister.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (15:39): Far be it from me to question the judgement, the opinion, that a particular media program changed policy, but what happened with the case of Farah 4 Kidz—and it is an ongoing matter at this point, and there is a limit to what I am able to say in public—is that a representation was made some time ago to the Attorney-General and through to my predecessor who acted promptly to have the board consider the matters. Those matters were considered and followed up, and then a subsequent complaint was made in which there was some involvement by the media.

That complaint was again followed up. Information had been provided to the federal government originally, and then in the second complaint also, on the matters which are the province of the federal government, which are particularly not only around the certification of the qualification of the workers but also the management of the income. Broadly, to translate that for people, what I mean by that is the allegation that children of one family might be being looked after by another family and vice versa, and then everyone is paid for that by the taxpayer. So, that was taken up again with the federal government.

I also had a briefing with the honourable member for Unley and, at his urging, have had engagement directly with the federal minister about this matter. It now looks like we are reaching a conclusion on appropriate action. As I say, I am wary of prejudicing any outcome by engaging publicly on this, but I will be approaching the member who has taken an interest to provide some confidential information to him, as long as it's on that basis.

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