Page 4491 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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admission she knew something in July and she did not stop the illegal practices. By her own inaction, she has become a party to the breaches of the law—those 24 breaches of the law. By her own inaction, she has shown herself to be unworthy of the confidence of this Assembly.
As I said earlier, no other motion of no confidence has ever been about such a grave matter. We are talking about vulnerable children—migrant children, traumatised children, refugee children, Indigenous children—and their carers who are disrespected by the agencies. We are talking about an agency that does not show care for the people that it is charged with responsibility for. So little care does it show that it breached the law, through either ignorance or wilfulness.
As the Public Advocate said, it is disingenuous to say that there was no other course of action when this happened 24 times. If it happened once, you would do something about it to ensure that it did not happen again. But there were 24 separate placements, for short periods and long periods, in appropriate circumstances and inappropriate circumstances, described in this place and described again by the Public Advocate.
By this minister’s complacence, by her inaction, she has shown herself to be unworthy of the confidence of this Assembly. From her own mouth she has condemned herself. She has admitted her guilt. It is the job of this Assembly to pass sentence on that guilt. And it is the job of this Assembly to sentence her to no longer be a minister, to no longer have the trust of this place—to say that we no longer trust her and to send her to the backbench. We can demand no less for a minister who is so remiss that many vulnerable children have been so damaged.
The people of Canberra will demand no less, and the vulnerable children of Canberra deserve no less from us, than that we send this minister, who is so incapable of administering her department that so many children have been damaged and exposed to trauma, to the backbench, saying that we no longer have confidence in her as a minister.
MS BURCH (Brindabella—Minister for Community Services, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Women and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs) (10.59): This motion is somewhat concerning because it ignores the fact that I commissioned the review into the care and protection placements. I note throughout this that I have been verballed again by Mrs Dunne, who seems to say that I said I knew. I have been very clear in this place that I became aware of concerns in late July and I sought assurances and answers. At the end of that process it became clear that I had no alternative but to instigate an independent review.
It is also worth noting that the Public Advocate has only just provided her interim report to the government and we are yet to provide a response to the recommendations. It is concerning because it shows the opposition’s true motives—to politicise the childcare protection system rather than work constructively to improve it, and she draws my attention—
Opposition members interjecting—
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