Has DECD gone commando on its Minister?
26/06/2014
Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent has expressed concern today regarding the Department of Education and Child Development’s unilateral decision making without knowledge of its Minister.
“Earlier this week I received a letter from the Minister for Education and Child Development, Jennifer Rankine, regarding the closure of the Aboriginal, Multicultural, Languages and Learning Resource Centre,” says Kelly Vincent.
“In this letter, the Minister thanked me for bringing the issue to her attention as she believed that she would not have been advised by her Department of the Resource Centre closure otherwise.
“She also said that this closure had occurred without approval and contrary to a request from her office to undertake extensive consultation before a decision is made.
“This is very concerning. It suggests that the Department for Education and Child Development has gone commando on their Minister.
“If there is any Department in this state that requires close monitoring and strict accountability to its Minister after events of the last three years, Dignity for Disability would have thought it was the Education Department.
This is the Department that is responsible for the education and safety of our children – and children are our state’s most valuable resource, our state’s future. After DECD lurched from scandal to scandal, the Debelle Inquiry demonstrated that reform within the Department was necessary.
“Now, just over a year to the day since the Debelle Report was handed down, and the reform process was commenced, I wonder whether this process has been derailed. If we have a Department taking action against its Ministers commands on this occasion, how many other times has it happened?
“Dignity for Disability calls on the Minister to report on the progress of the Debelle reforms, and to investigate how many decisions her Department is making without her knowledge, or contrary to her explicit directions,” said Ms Vincent.
The aforementioned letter is available here, with paragraphs two and six expressing the Minister’s concerns about her own Department.
