Child Protection Inquiry
11/09/2013
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (17:13): I would like to speak today very briefly on behalf of Dignity for Disability in support of the Hon. Mr Robert Brokenshire’s motion to establish a select committee of the Legislative Council into the Debelle inquiry. I hope it is well known that I am not a supporter of pointless inquiries or political stunts, and this committee is neither of those things: it is not pointless and it is not a stunt.
I am sure I am not telling anyone anything new when I say that child abuse is an extremely serious issue, to say the least. The long-term impacts on the victims, their families and the wider community cannot and must not be underestimated or dismissed. I believe that child abuse is made doubly worse (if that is even possible) when it occurs within our own government-run and funded schools, out-of-school-hours care and other related institutions—places where families hope they can entrust the care of their children. In these cases, that trust was broken and it did not stop there, of course.
The response to these abuses by the minister’s office and the Department for Education and Child Development was marked by incompetence and scandalous inaction. We need to restore faith in a system that is currently incredibly damaged due to too many cases of child abuse and too much hiding, but I am sure that no-one in this chamber would disagree that one is too many.
The Debelle inquiry looked into some very specific issues and made some good recommendations that I understand are being acted upon. However, there remain significant concerns about record management in this state, and whether this could happen again, and about an alarming culture of incompetence and cover-up within the Department for Education and Child Development. Dignity for Disability has a proud record of working to highlight the abuse of many vulnerable groups within our society, and we will continue that proud record by supporting this motion today. I commend the motion to the chamber.
