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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-02-17 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (14:14): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Did the sexual abuse of these five girls happen in one state-run residential facility or more than one?

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Energy and Mining on a point of order.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Mr Speaker, that question offends standing order 97 because it contains argument.

The SPEAKER: The reference to sexual abuse is a matter that has been taken exception to in repeated points of order. The additional reference to questions as to the location of it introduces the prospect of additional facts and/or opinion. Should the member for Reynell wish to seek leave to introduce such further information, the member for Reynell may take the opportunity to do so.

Ms HILDYARD: My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Did the five girls who became pregnant live in one state-run residential facility or more than one?

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (14:15): As I have made perfectly clear, I won't be discussing individual cases and the privacy of young people in care is paramount.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: What I will say, however, is that for 10 years the Guardian for Children and Young People recommended—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister will resume her seat. Members on my left will cease interjecting. The minister is entitled to be heard in silence. The minister has the call.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: As I was saying, for over a decade the former Labor government ignored the calls of the Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume her seat. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Standing order 98: that is obviously debate.

The SPEAKER: The minister will resume her seat.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It's debate, sir; she's mentioning the Labor Party.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens raises a point of order of debate.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has commenced her answer. I will be listening carefully. The minister has the call.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: This is directly relevant because I was questioned about where they lived, and what we know is that for over a decade the former Labor government ignored the calls from the guardian to close large bed facilities. Not only did they not close large bed facilities—

Ms Stinson: Now there's more than double the amount of children in care under you—double the amount of kids in care now.

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Badcoe!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —they built more large bed facilities and they did nothing. Upon coming into government, we acted swiftly to decommission the Queenstown large bed facility—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —we decommissioned the Gilles Plains large bed facility, and we reduced the numbers and capped the numbers of all of the other large bed facilities because it is common knowledge—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —that the majority of the care concerns and incidents were coming from the large bed facilities that the former Labor government did nothing about. They kept building them despite what they were told. We have made an exerted effort to find homelike facilities. We have purchased homes, we have rented homes and we have instigated a MyPlace initiative so that our young people can actually decorate their homes and make them feel more homelike.

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: We have looked at wraparound services for our young people. We have programs such as—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —the MyPlace program, which is all about empowering our young people who are at risk of getting pregnant. We know that these children come from very difficult backgrounds. We know that we need to support them, and that is exactly what we are doing. We need to have homelike environments and the right therapies.

We have invested $600,000 in this Sanctuary therapeutic residential care model, which will be rolled out over the next three years, which develops relationships between the staff and young people to make a better homelike facility so there are trusting relationships and so that if there are predators, if there is online activity, the children will be able to discuss that with their workers. We have taken significant steps on e-safety. We have online safety agreements that must be—

Ms Stinson: How about them not being at risk rather than talking about it?

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Badcoe is warned.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: We have online safety agreements that children must sign before accessing mobile devices. We have the Family Link app, which is also installed—

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hurtle Vale is warned.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —to restrict use, to track and to monitor a child's movements and who they are with. In fact, it's the phone policy that led to the discovery of what was the activity with McIntyre and his subsequent arrest.

In the future, this will be rolled out to all non-government residential care homes as well, and we are working with government and non-government organisations to upgrade and improve continually. My department is in regular contact with the eSafety Commissioner. Cybersecurity is an across-society problem. We also have a trial with Telstra. The department recently approved a project that is a proof of concept mobility solution—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: —for children and young people in care. This project was developed in consultation with Telstra to roll out devices with software aimed—

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Three and a half minutes in, sir, it's all debate.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. The Minister for Child Protection will direct her answer to the question. The question was quite specific and related to whether there was one or more residential facilities involved, as I recall the question.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON: We have fewer large bed facilities and we are reducing the risk.

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