Page 2574 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 June 2012
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MS GALLAGHER: Listening to Mr Smyth, there is no more important area than child protection. Let us go back and look at what actually was written in the Vardon report. It says that this system was:
… already at risk because of chronic long-term under-resourcing resulting from the 1997 introduction of mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect. There were not sufficient systems to cope with this responsibility. When, in late 1999 and early 2000 …
When Mr Smyth was sitting at the cabinet table, obviously making those decisions about care and protection, the report says that there were not enough resources provided and that:
the intense demands of the new legislation, a new electronic database, outsourcing of out-of-home care, a lack of quality placement options, and the departure of senior staff all hit at once, the pressure on the system became acute.
Mr Smyth: So what has happened in the last eight years?
MS GALLAGHER: What I am saying, Mr Smyth, after listening to you in silence while you constantly interject across the chamber, is that you come into this place and lecture people about how seriously the opposition takes care and protection when you sat at a cabinet table and allowed a system to break down, and you did nothing about it. We know that. And that is what Vardon found.
When I became the minister for care and protection and this situation was brought to my attention—it is identified in Vardon that the minute it was the minister responded—the department could not even tell me where children were, whether they had sighted them, whether they had an accurate record of who they were placed with. We could not even find staff that worked for the agency. Some staff were found in the basement of a high school. These were not decisions of the government that I have been involved in, Mr Smyth. These are not decisions of a Labor government. They were decisions of a Liberal government. I am not trying to walk away—
Members interjecting–
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop the clock, please, Clerk. Mr Smyth was heard in silence. Ever since the minister has got to her feet, you have interjected constantly. The next person to interject across the chamber will be warned. You will hear the minister in silence. Ms Gallagher.
MS GALLAGHER: Thank you. The Vardon report says that there are three questions a territory parent should be able to answer immediately: How many children do you have? Where are they? How are they?
Whilst the Vardon report indicated that records could be found on the number of children in care, she also found that those second and third questions could not be answered immediately. So I stand here and tell you that the disgraceful care and protection system that this government inherited certainly did not indicate that Mr Smyth took it with the priority that he would now lecture us about.
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