Page 2566 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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these changes that we put in place are on the right track. I certainly believe they are on the right track. We will have a quarterly milestones review in place. I note that Ms Hunter has tabled an amendment to this motion. The government will be supporting this amendment. I agree with that and I certainly have no hesitation in making publicly available the milestones review. I am so committed to making sure that these changes are effective and are put in place without further delay that I am more than happy to have them publicly released and for us to be held accountable as we move forward in this area of serious reform of what is probably one of the most complex and challenging human services that a government can deliver.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Leader, ACT Greens) (10.34): I do not think there is any doubt that there have been some significant failures on the part of the Community Services Directorate. This was the finding of the Public Advocate in 2011 and again last week and it is something that the Greens and, of course, this Assembly are required to take very seriously.
The latest Public Advocate’s report says that, without significant reform of the systemic structure, staff within care and protection services will perpetuate the current reactive culture and the work undertaken will mirror the chaotic and complex nature of the families who come into contact with the statutory system. Therefore, we need to ensure that beyond the motion today we have review mechanisms in place to monitor and evaluate the change that is so desperately needed in this area.
However, from the government response to the Public Advocate’s second stage report, there do seem to be efforts being made to implement change within care and protection services. We are still awaiting the report from the Auditor-General which will also provide information and direction to the Community Services Directorate about how to guide and make sure that change is effective and meaningful for those on the ground who are part of this system.
In the meantime, we have received a response from the government about the work which is underway. The Greens are proposing an amendment today, as we cannot support the no-confidence motion. We cannot do this because the no-confidence call does not meet the tests that we apply to make this sort of judgement. This motion is based on the information received from the second part of the Public Advocate’s report. Whilst the information continues to be alarming, I do not believe that there is any new information contained within this report that points to the minister being grossly negligent or corrupt in her behaviours around these issues.
While at times I certainly believe that the minister should have more information supplied to her about issues occurring within the directorate that she is ultimately responsible for, I do not believe that she has, since calling for the first and second Public Advocate reviews, behaved in a manner that would justify this call for no confidence.
The time line of this event is very clearly documented. In September 2011 there was a motion calling for the Public Advocate to conduct an investigation about the placements of several children with non-approved providers. At that time we decided it was best to allow the Public Advocate to conduct an investigation that followed the
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