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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2273 ..

The committee clarified with the minister that, although there had been considerable staffing changes, the chief executive had remained the same since 1996 and, by law, that position carried the responsibility of territory parent, regardless of whether some of the functions were delegated to other persons. We question the assertion by the minister that the report actually exonerates any individuals. The commissioner’s statement in the report and her response to the committee do not allow the reader to draw any conclusions about the lack of recommendations concerning individuals.

The committee is deeply concerned that the issues of responsibility and accountability, as distinct from blame, still have not been addressed. We were concerned that the Territory as parent report appears to be a solely administrative document and does not look at the responsibilities of office holders pursuant to the act. We believe that it is important for there to be a significant response to addressing the system problems within family services, but it is equally important that that response be very thoughtful and well planned.

The minister stated that she could not possibly have implemented a report of this size in a week, but then she indicated that she wanted to do it very quickly. The committee is concerned that the desire to move on or to be seen to be fixing the problem might be dominating the task at hand and might lead to an inadequate response to the very serious issues that need to be addressed.

The committee noted that a second report that will be part of the review’s terms of reference will be completed in mid-July. It will be an audit and case review report and was characterised by the commissioner in her letter to the committee as a report on the core business of the Child Protection Agency. The committee is concerned that the government will be rushing to implement the recommendations of the Territory as parent report and will now be asking the Assembly to consider amendments to the budget, despite the fact that the review process has not been completed as a result of that audit, and before these budgetary changes have been scrutinised.

Whilst we recognise that immediate action is needed to address primary concerns raised in the Territory as parent report, there is also a need to ensure that the longer term solutions actually address the major problems at hand. Accordingly, we came up with a number of recommendations. Firstly, recommendation 17 recommends that the government consider that audit and case review before it finalises implementation plans and before it brings to the Assembly amendments to the budget or, if needed, a second appropriation bill.

Because we had grave concerns in relation to people who had been negligent in their duties, we also made a recommendation that the Chief Minister direct the Commissioner for Public Administration, at the conclusion of the review of child protection in the ACT, to report to relevant ministers and the Chief Minister those officers who had been found to have breached statutory obligations or been otherwise negligent and recommend appropriate disciplinary action. I commend that recommendation to the government.

I turn briefly to an issue raised in relation to the fence at Quamby. I note that work was meant to start in January, but still had not started at the time we had the officials before us, although we were told that it would occur.

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