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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-03 Daily Xml
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Smith, Ms A.M.

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (14:57): My question is to the Attorney-General. Has the Public Advocate sought to conduct any inquiry into the circumstances regarding Ann Marie Smith's care, guardianship and subsequent death?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:57): To the best of my knowledge no, but—

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: —if the member were to apprise herself of the state task force that's been appointed, she's on that. Anne Gale is the Public Advocate, and she's also the Acting Principal Community Visitor, so I think she has an important role to assist in relation to the task force aspects. I am not aware of any other investigation that she's undertaken, but I continue to receive from her reports in relation to people under our care and/or who have come to difficult circumstances, one way or another. Incarceration and homicide are the types of things that of course I am kept abreast of. Obviously, I have a number of other agencies who tell me about whether they have been in court or not and so on, in relation to those two roles.

Similarly with the Public Trustee: they also deal with a very vulnerable group in the community. In fact, we have 834 clients of the Public Trustee who are also under the guardianship of the state. So they are under the responsibility of the Public Advocate and/or the Principal Community Visitor mandate. That's an area of extension of course, which, under this government, we have extended the community visitor service to provide. I am pleased that she's been invited to be on and is part of that task force. I think she will be a valuable resource of information as to what currently occurs in state operations, and obviously she has the continued supervision of very vulnerable people. I think she will be a valuable asset to the task force.

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