Page 1030 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 2013
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over me. That is why I came back to you. Don’t have a conversation with Ms Gallagher while the minister is trying to answer the question. Ms Gallagher, please do not have a conversation across the chamber with Mr Smyth. Ms Burch.
Mr Hanson: Just on your ruling there, Madam Acting Speaker, whilst you were speaking the minister was again interjecting and calling across the chamber. If you are going to be chastising Mr Smyth, and indeed Ms Gallagher, you ought, for consistency, make sure that you are being equitable with your rulings for this side of the chamber and the other.
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: I will continue to be such. Thank you, Mr Hanson, for your advice. Are you finished, minister?
MS BURCH: I have run out of time.
MADAM ACTING SPEAKER: Yes, you have. Ms Berry on a supplementary.
MS BERRY: Minister, could you inform the Assembly whether or not the government has agreed to, or agreed to in principle, the recommendations of the Auditor-General’s report?
MS BURCH: I thank Ms Berry for her interest in this. Indeed, those who have read the Auditor-General’s report would see that we have agreed in the main with all the recommendations. There are three where we have agreed in principle. So it is not a matter of not agreeing with the thrust of her recommendations. It was just a mechanism of how we get there and we will continue to invest in the reform.
It is on record in the Auditor-General’s report, through the Public Advocate and the milestone review the serious reforms and investment that we have made in care and protection, that they are going in the right direction, and that once implemented and once bedded in they will address the issues raised in the Auditor-General’s report.
Children and young people—care and protection
MRS JONES: My question is to the minister for children and young people. For the sake of the whole Assembly, in dealing with these most serious matters, I refer to the Auditor General’s report into care and protection services which found:
… some children and young people, after being placed on long term orders, may never be visited by staff from this Branch. Furthermore, there is no policy to guide visitations for monitoring the welfare of children and young people in out-of-home care.
Minister, why do some children and young people, after being placed on long-term orders, seldom or never receive a visit from workers in the care and protection services branch?
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