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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-16 Daily Xml
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Child Protection, Rice Inquiry

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:58): My question is to the Premier. Given the findings of failure within the Rice review regarding the Minister for Child Protection, why won't the Premier now deliver on a promise he made in September 2018? With your leave and that of the house, Mr Speaker, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The Premier said in September 2018, quote:

I have told my ministers they cannot expect to remain in cabinet if they see nothing, hear nothing and question nothing.

Ministers have to be inquisitive, inquiring and challenging.

Responsibility ends on the minister's desk, not at the departmental door.

Is it now the Premier's policy to accept ministers who do hear nothing, see nothing and act on nothing?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:59): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. Far from doing nothing, our government acted extraordinarily promptly. As soon as we learned about this situation where critical incidents were not forwarded to executives and ultimately the chief executive and then ultimately, of course, the minister, we put an inquiry in place. This was done extraordinarily promptly. So, rather than kick the can down the road like those opposite may have done when they were in government, we acted extraordinarily quickly.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: And, may I say, and I thank the Attorney-General for putting that inquiry into place, that inquiry was delivered very expediently to the Attorney-General. It was reviewed by cabinet in prompt time and, of course, we have now published our action plan. So, far from not taking action, we've taken action, we've acted responsibly, we've put forward a great level of—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —transparency with this with very minor redactions only to protect the identity of the two children in the care of the state, the Chief Executive of the Department for Child Protection, and we've published it. We've tabled it in the house today and now it is made available, so I am very satisfied that we have acted promptly. This contrasts quite considerably with what we saw under the previous government.

Under the previous government—and I am sure you are happy for some compare and contrast, given the nature of the question which was put forward—what we saw was report after report after report and no action taken whatsoever. In fact, the Nyland royal commission report—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —actually said the department was in crisis. There was no such finding. There was no such recommendation in this report—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —which we have seen. In fact, the author of this report made it very clear that he had no evidence to suggest that the officers within the department did anything other than put the interests of the two children as their highest priority—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —as their highest priority, and that's exactly what we need to keep a focus on. We need to keep a focus on the safety of our most vulnerable children here in South Australia, and that's why we acted promptly. This is a completely stark contrast to what we saw over 16 years of failed administration in child protection. Since coming to government, we now have a dedicated minister in the cabinet.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have a dedicated department and chief executive. We've moved ahead with a range of policies which put these most vulnerable children—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's really interesting the interjections that are coming: why doesn't the minister answer?

Mr Brown: We get nothing but spin, empty spin. All we get: empty spin.

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Playford will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The attacks from the front bench against the leader. The leader asked me a question so it is appropriate in that instance for me to answer that question. The question was actually asked by the Leader of the Opposition to me, so I have outlined to the house the evidence that suggests that we have acted extraordinarily promptly. This is an extraordinarily high priority for our government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have dedicated additional resources, we have put additional policies in place and I think we have significantly improved the operation of this very important portfolio within government. But what former Judge Rice's report makes very clear is that there is more work to do, especially around the area of critical incident reporting. We accept all of his recommendations—in fact, we go much further—and we will make this a major priority for our government.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the deputy leader, I call to order and warn the member for Reynell. The member for Badcoe will leave for the remainder of question time in accordance with standing order 137A, as will the member for Lee.

The honourable members for Badcoe and Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

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