❓ Opposition questions the Minister for Community Development about the adequacy of child protection services, citing a motion passed by DCD staff expressing concerns. The Minister defends the government's record, highlighting increased funding and staffing while blaming the previous government for neglect.
AnsweredQoN 677Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to the crisis meeting attended by more than 300 Department for Community Development staff on Wednesday, 2 November, at which the following very serious motion was moved and passed unanimously by the minister’s staff in DCD: “The CPSU/CSA members know that children are not being adequately cared for by the department. Members call on the government to stop providing bandaid solutions and to properly resource DCD to protect the vulnerable children of WA and to provide good and proper support for the children in the care of the department and in childcare.” What has the minister been doing for the past five years? Ms S.M. McHALE
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. For the past five years I have been correcting the neglect of the Court government in this very area. I will say that again: I have been correcting the neglect of and lack of attention given to this area by the previous Liberal government. I will give an example of how I can say that. An interesting article was published in The West Australian a couple of weeks ago about a Productivity Commission report that showed Western Australia spent $48 per capita on child protection. We must be very careful of that figure. However, I have looked back over the expenditure in the last year of the Court government in 1999-2000, which shows that the corresponding figure was just $17. Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE replied: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. For the past five years I have been correcting the neglect of the Court government in this very area. I will say that again: I have been correcting the neglect of and lack of attention given to this area by the previous Liberal government. I will give an example of how I can say that. An interesting article was published in The West Australian a couple of weeks ago about a Productivity Commission report that showed Western Australia spent $48 per capita on child protection. We must be very careful of that figure. However, I have looked back over the expenditure in the last year of the Court government in 1999-2000, which shows that the corresponding figure was just $17. Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. For the past five years I have been correcting the neglect of the Court government in this very area. I will say that again: I have been correcting the neglect of and lack of attention given to this area by the previous Liberal government. I will give an example of how I can say that. An interesting article was published in The West Australian a couple of weeks ago about a Productivity Commission report that showed Western Australia spent $48 per capita on child protection. We must be very careful of that figure. However, I have looked back over the expenditure in the last year of the Court government in 1999-2000, which shows that the corresponding figure was just $17. Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE replied: I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. For the past five years I have been correcting the neglect of the Court government in this very area. I will say that again: I have been correcting the neglect of and lack of attention given to this area by the previous Liberal government. I will give an example of how I can say that. An interesting article was published in The West Australian a couple of weeks ago about a Productivity Commission report that showed Western Australia spent $48 per capita on child protection. We must be very careful of that figure. However, I have looked back over the expenditure in the last year of the Court government in 1999-2000, which shows that the corresponding figure was just $17. Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
I thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question. For the past five years I have been correcting the neglect of the Court government in this very area. I will say that again: I have been correcting the neglect of and lack of attention given to this area by the previous Liberal government. I will give an example of how I can say that. An interesting article was published in The West Australian a couple of weeks ago about a Productivity Commission report that showed Western Australia spent $48 per capita on child protection. We must be very careful of that figure. However, I have looked back over the expenditure in the last year of the Court government in 1999-2000, which shows that the corresponding figure was just $17. Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.E. Walker : We are asking what you are doing. Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE : I have been correcting the lack of attention given to this area by the former government. What have we done in the past four years? We have increased the budget of DCD. Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Several members interjected. The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
The SPEAKER : I call the member for Roe to order. Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE : The Gallop Labor government has increased the budget of DCD by $140 million. I will repeat that because some members opposite do not want to hear what we have done to correct the lack of attention the former coalition government paid to this area. We have provided the department with an extra $140 million. The meeting that I attended last week was very useful and I thank the members of the department who attended it. We had a very useful discussion. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question, the government has provided the department with $140 million in new money, it has employed an additional 140-plus staff, it has doubled the staffing levels of the child care unit and an additional $3.6 million in funding was announced a number of weeks ago. Our record on child protection is very solid. Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Several members interjected. Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
Ms S.M. McHALE : We have been correcting the neglect of the previous government. The biggest shame is the lack of attention paid to the abuse of children in care by the previous coalition government. I remind every member in this house that this government has undertaken an audit of the abuse of children in care over the past 10 years. We have had to correct the previous coalition government’s neglect. We have now referred for legal advice 176 children who the former government should have referred for legal advice. We are correcting the mess of the previous coalition government’s neglect. The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
The SPEAKER : I call to order the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and the member for Capel.
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