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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-14 Daily Xml
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MATTERS OF INTEREST

CHILD PROTECTION

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:24): I want to talk about the sad case of the rape of an eight-year-old in a school facility whilst the Premier was the minister for education, and the equally sad case of the Premier trying to explain away either his negligence, incompetence, deceit or untruthfulness in relation to his handling of this particular issue. The Premier's position has changed almost on a daily basis. Originally he said he knew nothing of this particular issue and that there had been no advice provided to him or his office. As a former minister for education, I knew that that would be untrue. In fact, on the day that he said it, I tweeted that it would be untrue.

Within 36 hours the Premier came clean and indicated his next position which was that, yes, his office had been advised—his chief of staff, Simon Blewett, had been advised—but the Premier claimed that Mr Blewett had not informed him of the details of this crime being committed in a school facility. Mr President, as you would know, Mr Blewett is a long-time friend and factional colleague of the Premier's. He was in fact discussed as a potential candidate to replace the Hon. Bob Sneath in this place and is being looked on as a potential member of parliament, representing the left, on some future occasion.

We also know that minister Weatherill's adviser, Mr Jadynne Harvey, was also advised of this particular set of circumstances. The Premier wants us to believe that neither Mr Blewett nor Mr Harvey raised this issue at any time over a period of almost 12 months in their daily briefings with the minister for education. So, it was never mentioned at all in the daily briefing. When the minister visited the school in question, the chief of staff and the education adviser made no mention of this particular incident.

We are asked to believe that neither of those officers discussed the issue with the media adviser, Bronwyn Hurrell, another long-time friend and staffer of the now Premier, that perhaps there might be a question about the rape of an eight year old in a school and that that should be advised to the minister for education. I know, as a former minister for education, that something as serious as that would be advised to the minister for education, and should have been advised not just by the minister's staff but also by the chief executive and senior officers who brief the minister on a weekly basis.

Every week there would be a briefing between the chief executive and the minister for education. The agenda for that meeting would be: what are the major issues of this particular week and what might be an issue in terms of public controversy? What the Premier wants us to believe is that on no occasion during that year did the chief executive or a senior officer ever at any stage say to the Premier, 'Look, by the way, this is what is happening with this particular offence that has been committed down at this school.' There was a change in policy between December 2010 and February 2012 in relation to critical incident reporting.

What the Premier would want us to believe is either that at no stage did he approve that change in policy or that, when the policy change was being discussed, he was not advised that some of the reasons for the change of policy were the events of December 2010, and that never at any stage did one of his officers raise the question, discuss the issue in the ministerial office or raise the issue with him during any particular discussion. This position of the Premier is impossible to believe. In fact, many journalists are saying it is impossible to believe and many parents in the community are also saying that it is impossible to believe.

The second issue I raise is the politicisation of the Public Service by the Premier's department. I have been advised of an email sent by the Deputy Chief Executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, Tahnya Donaghy, headed 'A Switch in Time: restoring respect to Australian politics', which said, 'Did the Prime Minister's recent speech in parliament that went international strike a chord with you?' She then goes on to say that Mary Crooks of the Don Dunstan Foundation was coming to speak. This sort of politicisation of the Public Service through emails is unacceptable and certainly should not be sanctioned by the Premier and the department.

Time expired.

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