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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-02 Daily Xml
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Child Protection

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:15): My question is to the Premier. Why are so many children in South Australia in residential care? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: The 2025 Report on Government Services data found that one in every 483 children in South Australia is in residential care, which is more than double the national average of one in 1,227.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (14:15): I thank the member for the question. I am always very happy to answer questions about the reforms that we are making to the child protection and family support system—reforms that are really hard because the complexity of issues that families are facing is really, really challenging. We know that an increasing number of families in South Australia are facing intergenerational trauma, domestic violence, mental ill health and substance misuse. That means that they are requiring assistance, they are needing help, and we are setting about providing a system that gives them that help in a way that is effective.

What I can tell the house, and I am really pleased to tell the house—or first of all reiterate the Premier's comments, and that is that finally we are seeing a reduction in growth in the number of children coming into care from a high under those opposite of 9 per cent growth to now, as at January 2025—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —I will get to that—there is also good trajectory. We are now seeing zero per cent growth. Another high—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey will come to order! Members on my right and members on my left will listen to the minister in silence.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: In 2020, the growth of Aboriginal children coming into care sat at 13.1 per cent. That growth, at 30 June 2024, now also sits at zero. This is good news, and what sits alongside that is that we are, as the Premier spoke about, investing in family group conferencing, we are investing in reunification, we have invested in a peak body for Aboriginal children and young people, and all of those efforts that we are making in that regard are showing that we now have more family-based carers, we have more staff, we have more investment in the system.

So I am happy to talk about these results, because they speak to positive outcomes for children and young people. Of course, there is more to do. We are going to continue the tough, hard job of reforming the system to continue these results. We are reforming the system through investment and policy. We also have legislation before the upper house that sets out further reform, and what I can tell you is that when that legislation was in this house the deputy leader supported that legislation. There were no amendments whatsoever. Clearly, something has happened between the deputy leader's position in this place and then his shadow assistant minister—

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Minister, if you can sit down please; there is a point of order from the member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Reflecting on a vote of the house within the same session is always out of order.

The SPEAKER: Okay. While there is a little bit of a break, I would ask for quiet on both sides. The member for Badcoe, the member for Elder and the Minister for Education, if you would please stop with the interjections. The minister.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: As I was saying, I am not sure what has happened between the deputy leader and the shadow assistant minister between the houses, but what I am sure about in this tough area of public policy, is we are beginning to make improvements for children and young people through policy and legislative reform. What I am very sure about is that we have not seen one policy—not one policy—from those opposite whatsoever. What I would like to know is which one of these reforms that are making change for children and young people do they not support?

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