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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-03 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Child Protection

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:08): As have many other members of this house for many years, I have been deeply focused on how we can collectively ensure that every South Australian child is able to thrive and to be healthy and safe in every way. I was deeply honoured to take on the shadow child protection portfolio last year and am committed to working with the incredible stakeholders and passionate advocates in child protection towards the wellbeing of all children.

Over the past few months, a veritable plethora of issues has been raised in the media and with my office regarding horrendous systemic failures within the Department for Child Protection, difficult and heartbreaking issues and failures that speak to the need for so very much more to be done to strengthen families, to prevent abuse and to ensure that every South Australian child can thrive and live well, and issues and failures that speak to the need for this minister to do so very much better.

In September last year, we were deeply shocked, as were others in this place, when we found out that convicted paedophile Matthew McIntyre had raped a 13-year-old girl in state care who had become pregnant through the abuse. To the absolute horror of many South Australians, we also discovered that the Minister for Child Protection had no knowledge whatsoever of this terrible incident until she was contacted by the media after the judge's sentencing remarks were released.

South Australians are rightly asking how a child in residential state care was able to be accessed by this horrible predator. At the time, the minister, who had been the minister for almost three years, attempted to sheet the blame to the former government, which she said did not have procedures in place for the minister to be notified of such incidents. However, on 17 September 2020, the minister said:

The incident reporting procedure was such that a minister, prior to my changes earlier this year, would not have been notified and I think that is outrageous.

Just over a month after the McIntyre case and those comments came to light, department chief executive, Cathy Taylor, also told this parliament via the Budget and Finance Committee that DCP had:

…always had policies whereby significant incidents should be escalated and that we would have an obligation to report.

The minister absolutely refuses to explain this contradiction. She refuses to answer any of the questions that we ask her, but our community deserves to know. Our community deserves an answer. Whatever the policy may or may not be, the question also remains: why on earth was she not asking every single day, 'Is there anything I need to know? Are there incidents of this type happening?'

Why is she not inquisitive? Why is she not asking every single day? South Australian children deserve for her to be asking those questions. South Australian children who are in her care who are often vulnerable already deserve for her to ask these questions, and our parliament and our community deserves for her to answer the questions that are asked of her in here for her to be accountable, to be transparent and to be open about these terrible abuses of children.

Moving ahead another month to 10 December 2020, we again were alerted by the media that another 13-year-old girl in state care had been abused by a paedophile, who has now also been convicted. Appallingly, amongst that report we find that that paedophile was enabled to live for two months with the child—a girl who at the time was being cared for by DCP in a residential facility. How on earth could that ever—ever—be enabled to happen? Again, and despite her repeated assurances she would be informed of such incidents, the minister was not made aware of this incident until contacted by the media.

Protecting children and improving their wellbeing requires leaders to do everything they possibly can to ensure that those children are safe, protected and supported, and doing everything you can means relentlessly, methodically and regularly inquiring into the health, safety and wellbeing of those children. It means always being inquisitive.

Time expired.

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