House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-09-27 Daily Xml

Contents

Child Protection Department

Ms SANDERSON (Adelaide) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Education and Child Development. Given the significant weight placed on the importance of drug and alcohol orders by the Chloe Valentine inquest, will the government now implement Justice Nyland's recommendation that the child protection agency be given the power to issue a written directive to parents or guardians to require them to submit to drug or alcohol assessment?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Child Protection Reform, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for Consumer and Business Services, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:54): This is one of the recommendations from the commissioner that we are looking at, and in due course we will be making a determination about whether the recommendation is to be accepted and we will be—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: As I think I have foreshadowed, it's our intention to bring forward a completely new child protection legislative framework and—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Yes, well. The new framework will address all of these particular issues which were thrown up in Commissioner Nyland's report. It is entirely a matter for the member for Adelaide and others but, if they wish to ask the government questions about each and every one of the recommendations, however many times they ask those questions the answer today will be the same, which is that 38 of them have been accepted and the rest of them we are looking at. I don't mind—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: It is not a debate. The member for Adelaide has asked a question. The Deputy Premier is answering it. The leader is warned for the second and final time.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: This is one of the matters that we will consider in the context of the legislation that we hope to be bringing to the parliament in the not too distant future, and we will see exactly how that fits together when we have that draft.