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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-05 Daily Xml
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Bills

Social Workers Registration (Commencement of Act) Amendment Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (12:00): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Social Workers Registration Act 2021. Read a first time.

Standing Orders Suspension

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (12:01): I move:

That standing orders be so far suspended as to enable the bill to be taken through all stages without delay.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: An absolute majority not being present, ring the bells.

An absolute majority of the whole number of members being present:

Motion carried.

Second Reading

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (12:03): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Today I introduce the Social Workers Registration (Commencement of Act) Amendment Bill 2025. As I do so, I again thank the many exceptional social workers and people providing social work services. They are skilled, dedicated and compassionate, and they walk alongside people when they face difficult times, empowering them to traverse new paths.

Social workers in the child protection and family support system, for example, encounter some of the most challenging circumstances that families experience. They are there for children and their families at their hardest moments. These resilient workers offer empathy and support and empower people to have agency about all that impacts their lives. They go about their work at the coalface of need with deep commitment and not always with acknowledgement, nor broader community understanding of their role.

This bill seeks to amend the Social Workers Registration Act 2021 so that the scheme commences on a day fixed by proclamation. We take this step following the Social Workers Registration Board's lengthy consultation with unions, the AASW, government agencies and community sector organisations, consultation which has highlighted the complexity of social work and workforce issues, the need for multiple registration pathways to recognise qualifications, experience, associated fees and timeframes.

Paramount in our thinking around the scheme's later commencement is our desire not to impose a new fee on hardworking South Australians. Following the passage of this bill, our work on this groundbreaking scheme will continue. I acknowledge the intensive and remarkable work already undertaken.

Professor Sarah Wendt and her team have worked hard, diligently and with such wisdom on this very unique and very complicated piece of work. It is the government's intention for Professor Wendt to continue to lead this work. She will continue to refine the specifics of the scheme until its implementation, particularly around the need for diverse pathways for registration, how best to recognise experience and how best to ensure the work of Aboriginal people who provide social work services is recognised.

The office of the Social Work Registration Board is in the process of forming an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander committee to provide advice. Again, the office of the Social Work Registration Board has consulted with the sector at length about the scheme. I am advised that around 1,845 people have been engaged. What we have learned during this very comprehensive consultation period is that this extra time will allow the board to refine some of the concerns that have been raised about such a complex scheme, the first in the nation.

The government will continue to advance this scheme in a thoughtful way that takes account of the complexity of the work and also takes account of the registration fees that will be required in due course. Thank you again to all who have been part of this process so far, including Women's Safety Services, Anglicare, Life Without Barriers, Connecting Foster and Kinship Care, Child and Family Focus, Embolden, Wakwakurna Kanyini, the PSA, the ASU, Flinders University and the University of South Australia.

I extend, again, my sincere gratitude to Professor Sarah Wendt, whose leadership in this space has been exemplary. I also acknowledge her team who have worked so hard. I especially mention the Australian Association of Social Workers, who are fierce advocates for social workers and the scheme. I acknowledge Mr Spiro Karanikos-Mimis in my office who has been diligent and patient and wise in progressing the scheme's deliberations to date and this bill today. I commend the bill to the house and seek leave to have the explanation of clauses inserted in Hansard without my reading it.

Explanation of Clauses

Part 1—Preliminary

1—Short title

2—Commencement

These clauses are formal.

Part 2—Amendment of Social Workers Registration Act 2021

3—Amendment of section 2—Commencement

This clause amends the commencement provision of the measure so as to provide for commencement of the Act on a day to be fixed by proclamation.

4—Amendment of section 68—Regulations and fee notices

This amendment is consequential.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (12:07): I rise just briefly to address this bill that the government sought leave to introduce late yesterday and then successfully moved to suspend standing orders to move it through the parliament today. I understand the circumstances of that are that it is necessary to regularise a further extension of time before the commencement of the social workers' registration arrangements that were to have commenced according to the date specified in the act as it presently stands.

In recognising that that is what has been necessary to occur, I think in the interests of all of those who are following the progress of this introduction that the minister has described as the first in the country and therefore something that we want to get right, I will just note that we can take the opportunity to talk about the importance of social workers and the work that they do. All of that is true, of course, as is the importance of those experts engaged in the process of ensuring that the Social Workers Registration Scheme, when it does commence, is working in the interests of the profession and the individual workers and all of those that they serve. I do not cavil with any of that. What I do flag is that it may be convenient, just briefly in the committee process, to inquire into some particulars as to the challenges that have been faced along the way and the reason why we are now moving through this bill from a fixed date for the commencement to commencement on proclamation—which will occur before too long, one hopes.

We see, on the face of it now, that this is amending the 2021 act to amend the date that was provided for in the 2023 amendment act, and here we are in 2025. There is no doubt that significant time has passed, and so I will just flag, for the benefit of the house and all those taking a keen interest, that if the government is able to put some particulars on the record in the course of a short committee process I think that would assist all of us.

Obviously, in the time available—and I appreciate the provision of a copy of the bill overnight—it is not practical for my party to have a position on the bill as such, noting both the inevitability of its passage in this place, with the government's support, and also the short time the opposition has been provided with the bill. I make nothing more of that than just to indicate that the bill will, I expect, pass through this place fairly shortly, and will therefore serve its notice period between the houses.

I expect there might be more said in another place in a little while but, with those words, I look forward to a brief committee process.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (12:12): I would just like to simply say thank you to the deputy leader for his conversation last night, and place on record, as I said to him last night, that I am very happy to organise a more fulsome briefing, in that time between the houses, from the Social Workers Registration Board, myself and my office about the very comprehensive process that has been taken today.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clauses 1 and 2 passed.

Clause 3.

Mr TEAGUE: As I have just indicated in my second reading contribution, this is an amendment that will change commencement from the date fixed by the 2023 act to now a date to be fixed by proclamation. I might just perhaps first ask the minister: is there a date in mind? Is there now a fairly fixed pathway and timeline towards commencement?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: The short answer is that there is not a fixed date in mind quite deliberately because, in the course of the extensive consultation, it was very, very clear that there is a great complexity in the work, both in social work and in the provision of social work services. There is a great spread of workers providing social work services in a very, very diverse set of industries. There is absolutely a need to very carefully consider pathways to registration for both qualified workers and for those workers with significant experience. There is a need to very carefully consider the particular experience of Aboriginal workers in that process. There is also a need, which has come back very strongly from the community sector, to consider workforce issues more generally.

We are very committed to continuing to progress this scheme as soon as possible, but what is very clear is that we must adequately and fulsomely take account of that very diverse set of issues that we contemplate and make sure we get it right and that is what this bill is about ensuring that we can do.

Mr TEAGUE: Can the minister give any indication as to when the act might be expected to come into operation?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: I am not going to commit to a particular date, but I can say that we want to do this as soon as we possibly can in a way that takes account of that diversity of issues. When we provide that briefing to the deputy leader, including the social workers' registration board itself, I think that will assist in terms of conveying the breadth and depth of issues that do need to be properly considered.

Mr TEAGUE: I will look forward to that briefing. I was going to say in due course. It is somewhat after the event, at least as far as this house is concerned, but nonetheless I will look forward to that briefing. In those circumstances, with all of the issues, matters, complexities and factors now known, are we within a frame in which we are not going to have another return to, say, 'Well, we have discovered more factors, complexities, etc.?' Do we know the universe that is being worked in and therefore there is a pathway towards commencement?

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: The short answer is that I am advised, yes, we are aware of that complexity of issues.

Clause passed.

Remaining clause (4) and title passed.

Bill reported without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD (Reynell—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence) (12:19): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.

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