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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-05-07 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:53): My question is to Minister for Education and Child Development. Why should South Australians have any faith that the government will improve the situation in our child protection system following the Chloe Valentine inquest, given we have had four previous major inquiries, including the Layton report, two Mullighan reports, the Debelle report and previous coroners' recommendations, yet we are still experiencing serious issues?

The SPEAKER: The difficulty I have with a question like that is that it is not a question seeking information, it's just a rhetorical question, but the opposition have chosen to ask it. The Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:54): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Because we are committed to the care and protection of children, that's why, and we have demonstrated that over—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for MacKillop is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —every single year of the period that we have held office—every single year of the period that we have held office. The child protection system that we found was criminally underfunded when we came into government, criminally underfunded.

Ms Sanderson: The money has made no difference.

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Agencies that were charged with the responsibility of providing advice to government had their reports rewritten so that they—

Ms Sanderson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —could not use the word 'crisis' because they did not want—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is called to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —it revealed—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —in the public sphere the depths to which this child protection system had fallen in this state—utterly and completely criminally underfunded.

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The former minister, the current member for Ashford, persuaded this government within three weeks of coming into office to put in place the most far-reaching view of our child protection system that has ever been seen in this country, the Layton review, and we acted on each of the recommendations—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —and over the period of time I think the funding that we arrived at when we came into office was in the order of about $90 million per annum, and I think it is now in excess of $300 million per annum. Over that period of time, we found ourselves with an act of parliament when we came into office which put at the centre of it the preservation of the family unit.

The overarching principle contained within that piece of legislation was not the care and protection of children but the preservation of the family, responding to some old values about the way in which our child protection should look. We changed that and made safety an important consideration in that act, and we are taking further steps to actually even strengthen further that imperative. We also found a system—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Schubert is warned for the second time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We also found a system that didn't give proper regard to the permanency of placement of children. We elevated strongly that proposition. We also found a system where kinship care—that is, relatives caring for children—was almost non-existent and so we re-created a strong system of relative care in our child protection system. We also found foster care workers who were appallingly under-remunerated for the volunteer work that they did and we dramatically increased foster care payments to ensure that those foster families, those incredibly generous people who give of their own family and lives to take in these most vulnerable children, are protected. We put in place a range of checks and balances for the first time.

Ms Sanderson: It's not working.

The SPEAKER: The member for Adelaide is on very thin ice.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: For the first time, we created a Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee. For the first time, we created an expanded jurisdiction so that complaints could be made. For the first time, we created a guardian for the care and protection of children to ensure that those children who are entrusted to our care had an independent advocate who could make representations on their part.

This is the work of our government. I'm proud of the work that we have done over these years. Is this difficult work? Is the job done? Of course there is much more that can be done, much more that can be done in the area of child protection. Is every jurisdiction around this nation and around the world grappling with the same challenges? Of course they are, and there is a special place in hell reserved for those who play politics with child abuse.

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