Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 08 Hansard (Thursday, 5 August 2004) . . Page.. 3504 ..

This government has led it; we have not hidden from anything; we have not scurried away from anything; we have made every piece of information public. I stand here and take responsibility for probably four or five ministers, and previous governments, leading back to well before self-government, Mrs Burke. I have resisted blaming previous governments. I have always said that I take responsibility as the minister in charge now, but there is a whole range of people I am taking responsibility for.

Let us look at what Mrs Burke has contributed to this debate over the past eight months. She has launched a website, calling for people to call in with their latest child protection drama, and to have government reports logged on it; she has had a bit of a tear on radio and TV; she has forwarded to my office a number of individual cases which we have dealt with one by one; I believe she has given some people false hope about what role she can play in sorting out their issues in child protection. That itself has had problems, particularly for me, in this place. She has never joined the government in reform; she is highly critical of everything we have been doing, apart from some of the money we have put in, which she says in welcome.

When I look to see what has happened around the country, child protection in Queensland went into crisis and in South Australia and Victoria the opposition has consistently worked with the government to reform it, because child protection is above politics, which is where it should be. But here in the ACT we could not have an opposition that said, “Yes, there is a massive problem and we have to deal with it”. We have an opposition that says, “Yes, there is a massive problem; it is Katy Gallagher’s fault and it is Jon Stanhope’s fault, and they need to go over it.”

Every time a report has come out, Mrs Burke’s contribution to the debate has not pushed the child protection reform agenda forward. In fact, I note that the Office of the Community Advocate had to write to Mrs Burke—thankfully, she made that letter available to all members here—to draw to her attention some of the problems with how she was conducting herself in the public debate. I will quote from parts of it. It says:

It seems that you did not read the letter I sent you, attaching the report, which deliberately and carefully pointed out to you that the analysis related to the past … It is a matter of serious concern to me that at this point in time, the reform process in the care and protection system is at an early, and somewhat fragile, stage, and what is needed is positive encouragement, solid understanding of the complexities of a care and protection service, and publicly expressed belief and hope that … efforts being made by a number of people in a number of agencies, will result in a better service. This is an important opportunity which must not be destroyed or lost. I can honestly say that at this point, I do not know what more anybody could be doing.

I will repeat that last bit. It says: I do not know what more anybody could be doing at this stage to reform child protection. (Further extension of time granted.) It continues:

… then I implore you to lend your support to it, and give the dedicated people now involved in moving forward, something of a fair go.

I do not think I could have said it better; they were exactly the sentiments I felt. I call on Mrs Burke again, if she has evidence to prove that I knew something was underway in

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .