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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3503 ..

Mr Quinlan: On the point of order: can I correct the record? I actually said, “Put up or shut up!”

MR SPEAKER: Interjections are highly disorderly and they should be discontinued.

MS GALLAGHER: Today I have been accused of knowing things and not taking any action; that I should have acted on things that I knew, or am alleged to have known; and that this review has been delayed a year. I dispute that. At every briefing and every meeting, every indication I was given was that all the reforms that needed to be undertaken in family services were being handled and were handled. It sounds to me like Minister Corbell was given that undertaking; I imagine Mr Moore was given that undertaking, and I understand Mr Stefaniak was given that undertaking. The audit goes back to 1987, in some cases. It shows that that simply was not the case; that we were not given information about the situation in child protection; that none of us was; that none of us in the Assembly understood; that no-one in the community understood, until the Vardon report and, following that, the specific details as outlined in Ms Murray’s report.

Nobody knew about it, and to stand here and say that I knew and that I delayed taking any action on this for a year, or for more than a year, is simply offensive. I was briefed on this on 11 December. We have been through this before. The Assembly rose on that day for the end of the year. I met immediately with the Chief Minister. We immediately put in train a plan to deal with it, including seeking information about what the hell was going on, because, frankly, the brief that was given to me did not tell me what was going on. At the first point at which we could go public, we did go public. At the time Mrs Burke, who was calling for the sacking of every child protection worker in the ACT, said we had pulled a stunt to do it before the bushfire anniversary, so as to hide it, which was a rather interesting take. (Extension of time granted.) We went public at the first opportunity. We have had a very thorough and very transparent review, where all aspects of my involvement, and that of previous ministers, have been analysed and reported on. Following on from that, the Community Advocate has had a look at everything and put her view in her report—and that report is public.

We now have the audit report. They looked into in excess of 1,000 files—the file of every single child involved with section 162 (2), and more. In fact, she went further than that. We now have a picture of what is happening in child protection. For the past eight months this government has been working to rebuild the system. We have put in place $68 million. Yesterday I opened the Woden office of the Office of Children, Youth and Family Support where, for the first time, we have child protection staff working with Youth Connection and juvenile justice in the one building so we can streamline our services to children in need.

Never have I seen such an optimistic work force. When I visited those workplaces seven months ago, when we had 50 fewer staff, I imagine, desks were empty; the staff had had enough. Meeting them yesterday and seeing all the results of the work and training that have gone in, the resourcing that has gone into their offices and the support they have got from a new management structure really shows that the child protection system in the ACT is on the way forward.

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