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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-11-17 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (15:12): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Can the minister assure the house that Families SA takes action on all cases in which it receives information about a drug-abusing parent under section 20(1) of the Children's Protection Act?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (15:13): I think the question requires some attention. If we are talking about section 20(2), which refers to the drug assessment that's required, that is a question of, if it is the view that there is a risk to the child and there are drug activities occurring, then, unless the CE is otherwise satisfied that the matter is already in hand, assessment orders ought to be sought from the Youth Court.

If that is a correct interpretation of the question that has just been asked then, as the house will be aware, there was some criticism levelled at Families SA in the recent Coroner's report on the death of Chloe Valentine. In that, the view was expressed that that clause hadn't been adequately used and, indeed, has not separately been reported on at all previously. However, it is not the case that drug orders are not sought by Families SA. I have recently been looking at the data for those drug orders because I am interested in how we are monitoring the use of drugs.

So, the data that I have got at the moment refers to assessment testing and treatment orders grouped up, and there were only—well, 'only'—185 done in the 2013-14 year and in 2014-15 there were 435, so a big bump in that year, and already in the first quarter of 2015-16 we have undertaken some 259 orders, or orders have been granted, which would put us on track to hitting over 1,000. So, I think if I have correctly interpreted the question, that is the extent of my answer.

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