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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-11-02 Daily Xml
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Children in Residential Care

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (14:44): My question is again to the Minister for Child Protection. Will the government implement suggestions made by the Guardian for Children and Young People in relation to the protection of any children in care who feel unsafe? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TEAGUE: In her report, the Child and Young Person's Visitor Annual Report 2022-23, the Guardian for Children and Young People said that many people she visited reported feeling unsafe in their houses. More than 80 per cent of the suggestions she made to DCP and NGOs for placement improvement related to young people feeling unsafe.

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) (14:45): The point that I wanted to get to at the conclusion of my last answer fits perfectly to elaborate on now in relation to this question from the shadow minister. Very importantly, the shadow minister speaks about the safety of children and young people in care. What I would really like to fill the shadow minister and the house in on is that for some time in opposition we called on the former government to actually fund the Child and Young Person's Visitor. We called on them and called on them and called on them.

Mr Whetstone: We were fixing up your 16 years of mess.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: There was a trial of the Child and Young Person's Visitor scheme and Penny Wright, who did an extraordinary job during that trial period, actually wrote to the then minister and tendered her resignation from the role of Visitor because those opposite refused—utterly refused—to fund the Visitor program, which is rightly, as the shadow minister has pointed out, a really important mechanism in ensuring that there is a person dedicated to visiting children and young people in residential care to speak with them, to ensure their voices are amplified, to make sure that they have an avenue to raise any concerns and to highlight particular issues they are experiencing.

So very, very importantly, after calling and calling on those opposite to fund the Visitor, given the previous Visitor had resigned because they refused to fund the Visitor—

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

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a—

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —we funded the Visitor—

The SPEAKER: Minister, there is a point of order.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —so we can hear these issues.

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated, please. There is a point of order under 134.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The question relates to what the government is doing from the suggestions of the Visitor. The minister has spent two minutes explaining that she has funded the Visitor's existence, but hasn't even gone near—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: —the question that was raised, which relates to whether the government is responding to the Visitor.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I will listen carefully and bring the minister to the question.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: I will try to explain again for the shadow minister's benefit. It is really important that—

Mr TEAGUE: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Member for Heysen, the minister has barely recommenced, so I'm not sure whether you are either taking in content that has already been dealt with by a point of order, in which case I will hear you, or you are forecasting material that the minister is about to contribute. Which is it?

Mr TEAGUE: It's neither of those two. It is standing order 98A. The minister has foreshadowed the description of the importance of the role of the Visitor. The question is the implementation, moving right along, of the suggestions made by the Visitor. That's the question that the minister is not answering and hasn't answered for the balance of her answer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! As the member for Heysen well knows, the test is not relevance but instead whether the minister is responding to the substance of the question. Material introduced by a minister is more likely to respond to the substance if it lies close to the heart or the pith of the question. That does not mean that the material introduced by the minister must be immediately or directly relevant. I will listen carefully.

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. As I was saying, the Child and Young Person's Visitor role is incredibly important to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, because the Visitor goes to residential care settings and, very importantly, listens to children and young people and raises issues that they feel are very important to them. So, to go to the question about ensuring the safety of children and young people, we acted on that call to fund the Visitor for children—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —and young people—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —because it is really, really, important. Having listened to the Children and Young Person's Visitor that we have funded, we are doing a range of things to enhance the safety of children and young people. I did mention some of the programs in my previous answer around My Place and the Sanctuary Model of Care. We are also partnering with the University of South Australia and with the Western Australian government on a range of programs around harmful sexual behaviours in residential care. We are funding that program, that body of work.

We are engaging in other mechanisms to keep children and young people safe, and some of those will absolutely be evident—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.A. HILDYARD: —when we also introduce legislation in the coming months.

The SPEAKER: Minister, your time as expired. The member for Narungga.

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