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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-25 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Child and Young Person’s Visitor Scheme

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:24): I rise utterly dismayed that South Australia's most vulnerable children—those who often face the most heartbreaking circumstances, those too often targeted by predators, those who need careful support to emotionally and mentally thrive, and those who most need to be heard, seen and have someone resourced to be there for them—have again been abandoned by this minister.

I find it almost beyond comprehension that the child protection minister would place children and young people in residential care at even greater risk by not funding a visitor. I say 'almost' because this is a minister who, despite having had many of her portfolio responsibilities removed, still fails to grasp her remaining responsibilities to the most vulnerable children in this state. She does not seem to deeply understand those responsibilities, let alone take the actions, make the funding commitments or show the leadership that these children desperately need and deserve.

Following the devastating news that the guardian has had to step down from the role of visitor because of a lack of funding, the best this minister could offer was platitudes about programs that have no relation to the visitor scheme. What we also saw in relation to questions about this crucial issue was more of what we have seen in successive responses—a shirking of responsibility, a handballing of questions to the Minister for Education, prepared speeches with no relevance to the serious issue at hand, obfuscation about the visitor undertaking a pilot program and repeated assertions about matters not directly related to children already in care.

The minister's responses are an insult to the guardian and they are an insult to the children and young people that this minister has the most important responsibility to protect. The guardian has repeatedly asked about funding specifically for the visitor. She has repeatedly advised, including in her most recent annual report, that children in care are at serious risk of harm from predators. The guardian has repeatedly raised this issue because it is so important.

All children deserve to be seen, deserve to be heard and deserve to be safe and, rightly, many children in our community are. But those children who most need extra resources to be heard, seen and supported are those in care. With her harsh, cold refusal to fund a visitor to do this, this minister has utterly failed those for whom she is responsible.

Tragically, this is the latest example in a list of failures to support children in care in the way they should be. Serious failure by this minister was clearly highlighted by Judge Rice in his recent review. When the minister was asked in estimates about whether she took responsibility for those failures highlighted by Judge Rice, she refused to do so.

By any measure, child protection in South Australia is absolutely in crisis. Numbers of children in care are growing exponentially under this minister's watch. We have an ongoing staffing crisis in residential care. Children are being looked after in DCP offices. Foster and kinship carers are overwhelmingly feeling abandoned and used. In 2019-20, 10,166 missing person reports were made in relation to children in care.

Now Ms Wright has said that, without funding, she was unable to 'fulfil functions even to a minimum standard'. She went on to say the business case she submitted to the Marshall Liberal government prior to this year's state budget was simply ignored. It was ignored when neighbours of residential care homes regularly report antisocial behaviour from adult men loitering around residential care. It was ignored when the minister herself has admitted there is no curfew for children in care. It was ignored amongst heartbreaking high-profile recent cases such as the recent Port Lincoln tragedy and the two cases of teenage girls being abused by paedophiles—cases which highlight exactly why we need a funded visitor scheme.

Make no mistake, Penny Wright's resignation will impact children and young people who most need support. Children in care need more support. They deserve a minister who will fund a visitor to listen to them, to hear their concerns and to help keep them safe. They deserve better. They deserve a minister who simply does not ignore what they need.

Time expired.

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