House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-05-16 Daily Xml

Contents

Grandparents for Grandchildren SA

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:39): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Has the minister met with Grandparents for Grandchildren SA?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:39): I thank the member for her question, and I acknowledge her interest in this area. Since becoming the minister, I have met with dozens and dozens and dozens of stakeholders. I have listed them in the priorities that I see fit.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The minister is answering a question.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: In just eight weeks, I have managed to visit 12 DCP offices. I have been to regional areas.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: I have been to residential care—

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The minister will be seated.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The point of order will be heard in silence, members on my right. The point of order is about direct relevance?

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: Could the minister please address the substance of the question.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my right! The question was very specific. The minister is entitled to apply related argument to an answer to the question, but she must directly reply to the substance of the question. Thank you, minister.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: Thank you, Speaker. I think an important thing to note is, if the opposition is going to be listing out every single person that I could have met with, there have been over 150.

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Could the minister please address the substance of the question more aptly.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: Okay. As I mentioned, I have met with dozens and dozens and dozens of people. As the former minister would know, under the royal commission there was a request that there would be one provider. Prior to this, there was Connecting Foster Carers and Grandparents for Grandchildren, who both looked after different segments of stakeholders.

It went out to tender last year under the former government, as required by the royal commission. It was your tender process—the former government's tender process—and that was announced only last Friday to the stakeholders. It hasn't been released publicly. It was not appropriate for me to meet with two tenderers in a tender process run by your former government. Until a decision was made, and until a decision was made public, it was inappropriate. They are certainly on my high priority list to meet with very soon.

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe.

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni: Like Gillman all over again.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley is warned.