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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Thursday, 12 February 2004) . . Page.. 313 ..

responses. If this had occurred, as it should have, the entire cabinet would have been aware that the committee was extremely concerned about a failure to comply with obligations under the Children and Young People Act 1999.

Let’s look at the department itself. The chief executive of the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services, Fran Hinton, has admitted that she failed to act sooner. On WIN news on 16 January 2004 Ms Hinton said, “I first focused on it late last year. But clearly, on reflection, I have been aware of it.” So, we know that the department were aware of it.

In this web of failure, there are three authority figures: Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, Education, Youth and Family Services, and the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services chief executive. Someone must be held accountable for such a serious breach of the law, which could have impacted adversely on the most vulnerable in our community—our children.

In response to question on notice No 402 in March last year, Minister Gallagher said:

Mandated persons who fail to report abuse and/or neglect concerns may also be subject to internal disciplinary action within their own places of employment.

It now has to be asked who will face that disciplinary action. Who will it be? The Chief Minister, for ignoring the successive warnings from the Community Advocate in annual reports, or the minister, for ignoring the warnings in a committee report, tabled in August last year, or the department’s chief executive, for ignoring the number of occasions it was brought to her attention last year?

We cannot allow the accountability door to be slammed shut and the shift of blame game to continue. We in this place are to be held accountable, however unpalatable this may be at times, to the people who elected us to these positions of trust. Once we violate that trust, we do not deserve to continue to hold a position in this place. We are not immune from pubic scrutiny and ultimate accountability. Never let us think we are.

While the government undertakes a review to inquire into the department’s serious failings, the issue of ministerial responsibility cannot simply be swept under the carpet. There is no doubt that there are many questions still to be asked and many facts yet to be uncovered; what is clear is that the law has been broken. Using the Chief Minister’s own standards, ministers must be held accountable.

MS GALLAGHER (Minister for Education, Youth and Family Services, Minister for Women and Minister for Industrial Relations) (3.38): As the minister responsible for this important government area, an area I hold as a priority for this government, I will always be prepared to speak in the Assembly on the matter of child protection.

The issues confronting child protection systems nationally are still being documented and investigated. Every state and territory jurisdiction is addressing the significant issues of administration and legislation concerning child protection and is reviewing its system of child advocacy and representation. Internationally, the issue has also been raised. Prime Minister Tony Blair, in introducing his landmark report Every child matters, stated:

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