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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Tuesday, 17 August 2004) . . Page.. 3706 ..

MS GALLAGHER: Ms Vardon and Ms Murray looked at children who were subject to allegations of abuse in care, a particular group of young people. I have never heard of “transit” files.

Mrs Burke: We are talking of files that were not made available to those people.

MS GALLAGHER: I am not aware of any file that was requested by the audit team or Ms Vardon that was not made available. I have never heard of the term “transit file” or “managed file”. I have heard of the title “unallocated cases” or “unallocated files,” which we moved immediately to fix, and there are no more unallocated files, but transit or managed files are new terms to me. Certainly in any discussion I have had with the commissioner and with Gwenn Murray, they did not raise any concerns about information not being provided to them or mention the words “transit file” or “managed file.” So I do not know where you are getting your information from for that. As far as I am aware, there was no problem with co-operation or providing any of the information that both of those reviews sought from the Office of Children, Youth and Family support.

Child protection

MR CORNWELL: My question is to the Minister for Children, Youth and Family Support. On Friday, 5 August, the Chief Minister, Mr Stanhope, announced that the government would not renew the contract of your chief executive, Ms Fran Hinton, due to government failure in child protection. Her contract, I understand, expires in September and she has gone on recreation leave. Minister, you have stated since May that it would be unfair to hold any individuals accountable for the gross failures that have occurred in recent years. What did you advise the Chief Minister when he consulted you about this matter?

MS GALLAGHER: I stand by those comments that no one single person should be held responsible for the failure of the system. I do not believe that the Chief Minister advised on Friday that it was because of failings in child protection that Ms Hinton’s contract was not being renewed. I had a discussion with the Chief Minister, as is appropriate. The contract of a senior executive, a chief executive, was coming up for renewal and the government decided not to renew that contract.

MR CORNWELL: I have a supplementary question. So the Chief Minister did not consult you before the decision was made?

MS GALLAGHER: No, if you had listened to my answer, I said that I had had a discussion with the Chief Minister about the contract that was up for renewal and that the government decided not to renew that contract.

Gungahlin Drive extension

MS TUCKER: My question is to Mr Wood and regards the government’s commitments to protecting wildlife on the site of the Gungahlin Drive extension. In particular, the government has committed to ensuring that all trees, rather than just randomly marked ones, will be treated as potential nesting spots for animals and that the biodiversity

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