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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-23 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:07): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Does the minister acknowledge she could have acted sooner had her department or office informed her when they first became aware of this tragic case in January?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:08): This is, of course, of great community concern, and I understand completely why I would be questioned on this. I am the minister responsible. The facts are what is of interest and what is important is: how did this happen, when did I know about it and what are we doing about it? Right? So as far as—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, leader!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —how did this happen? As we know, there are online predators. One in four young people will be approached online by a stranger. In speaking to the eSafety Commissioner yesterday, there has been a 196 per cent increase in this kind of behaviour online over the last year. This is a whole-of-community problem. This is every parent or carer's worst nightmare and that is what we are dealing with. It is my department's policies and procedures that, as I mentioned yesterday, were updated in January 2019 that enabled this to be discovered in a swift manner.

We do have phone policies. We do have agreements with our young people. She handed over her phone at night. The password had been changed. The residential care staff noticed this. They investigated further. They notified the police in a swift manner. All of their energy and effort was put around the best interests of supporting this young person. I applaud them for their work. I thank them for their work, and I would expect the exact same thing to happen in the future: that all of their effort and energy is about the young person.

My knowing after it has happened and the timing that I knew would not change that it has happened. There is nothing to be gained. My department put in place every support possible. There was a critical care review to put the supports in place, which was headed up by Dr Prue McEvoy, to make sure that the right therapies and supports are available to support this girl emotionally, physically and mentally, and they are still in place.

Why I didn't know? The other second most important question is because we were using the same policy and procedure that was there when I came into government so that, with respect to a significant—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —incident, I would not be notified. This was reviewed in response—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —to the Ann Marie Smith case, and it was updated in May. Once I saw that I was far down the chart it was changed. It was changed as of May this year. In future, I will be notified of an incident of this nature a lot earlier, but in saying that I couldn't have stopped the incident from happening no matter when I found out that it happened. What we can say is that, from there—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: What? So no child is safe?

The SPEAKER: Order, member for West Torrens!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —now that I do know, and I am aware that there is an issue in e-safety, which all parents are aware of, what I have done, and what I also said yesterday, is that I have reached out to the Minister for Education. I have a full list of all the e-safety, online bullying and predatory behaviours—all of the training that is taught through schools right from reception to year 12. I have made an appointment to see the Minister for Police where we can both have a briefing and a meeting with the joint task force, which is Federal Police—

Ms Stinson: You didn't know e-safety was an issue?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: Of course, I can speak to the minister at any time—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —and I do, but we are both having a briefing from the joint group, which is both the AFP and the SAPOL group. So we will both be briefed on the prevalence of this issue and what the police department is doing. South Australia Police also have an education arm that goes out and teaches people about the dangers of online interactions. It is something that we all have to grapple with.

I have met with our children's commissioner, Helen Connolly, and, as I mentioned, the eSafety Commissioner, and also my department has instructed and briefed the guardian.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the member for Reynell, I call to order the Deputy Premier, the leader, the member for West Torrens, the member for Kaurna and the member for Badcoe. The member for Reynell.

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