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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-09-06 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:14): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Can the minister explain to the house, or provide any information at all, with regard to any step-by-step processes she has put in place with her department since becoming minister to ensure that children in need receive urgent attention? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TEAGUE: I have asked the minister for such information on many occasions and over an extended period, including by my letter to the minister dated 23 May 2022 asking for such information in the context of an urgent case, my question to the minister on 2 June 2022, my letter to the minister dated 28 June 2022, and my numerous requests for such information in July 2022 following the tragic death of six-year-old Charlie. To date I have not received any substantive response.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (15:15): I thank the member for his question. I can say, first of all, that I have provided some answer to that question during a briefing I offered to the shadow minister on matters relating to child protection. I provided him with information about that particular question when I met with him and, as I said, during that briefing, I am happy to meet with him at any point and provide further briefings about these matters.

What I can say in this place is similar to what I have said before: that on becoming minister I discovered there was an alarming lack of questioning from the previous minister about particular events and particular circumstances and, similarly, generally a lack of voracious inquiry about the most important matters. What I set about doing immediately on becoming minister was review the procedures relating to notifiable incidents—how I am notified, when I am notified—and I absolutely reworked that process. I can assure the shadow minister, the member for Heysen, that I am relentless in asking questions about the safety of children and young people, and I will continue to be relentless in those inquiries.

First, in terms of action that has been taken, I have amended that procedure. I have been very clear with the department about that procedure. Also, the government has gone about fulfilling a number of commitments we made before the election and has also progressed a number of other actions since the election. The member would be aware that in the most recent budget we committed $128.9 million of additional funding to child protection.

We have also—very, very importantly—provided funding for the Child and Young Person's Visitor. Members who were in the last parliament would be aware that there was much advocacy and questioning of the previous government and the previous minister about the refusal to provide any ongoing funding for the role of the Child and Young Person's Visitor.

To link that to the question the member asked, having a funded Child and Young Person's Visitor to oversee children in care, oversee how they are going and be an advocate for them is incredibly important in terms of our ongoing, continuous efforts to improve children's lives, to improve their safety. It was really disappointing that the previous government simply refused to provide that ongoing funding. As people would be aware, the previous guardian, as a result of the lack of funding, actually resigned from that role.

One of the really clear actions that we have taken on coming to government is to fund that role for the Child and Young Person's Visitor. We have taken a number of other actions also on coming to government and we will continue to do so. Again, I reiterate that I thoroughly examined the systems and processes and made sure that I made really positive amendments to the procedures relating to notifications and I will continue to ask questions about those processes.

The SPEAKER: Member for Heysen, I see the member for Elder, but if you are asking a supplementary I am going to turn to you.

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