House of Assembly Thursday 13 June 2019
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Thursday 13 June 2019 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People and read prayers. STATEMENT BY SPEAKER Support for Government Madam SPEAKER - Honourable members, with the indulgence of the House I have a statement to make. As I have indicated very clearly to the House previously, I have guaranteed support for the majority Liberal Government for the term of this parliament on matters of supply and confidence. That remains the case. I also indicated at the outset on all other matters I consider my position on the merits of the argument - which is what I have done this week. Nothing has changed with my position. The Liberal Government was elected with a mandate to deliver on its plan. I have voted regularly with the Government to deliver on that agenda. Whilst I may have disagreed with the Government on social issues and process matters - as I did this week- my guarantee on supply and confidence is in place and there is no minority Government. QUESTIONS Intensive Family Engagement Service Ms WHITE question to MINISTER FOR CHILDREN, Mr JAENSCH [10.04 a.m.] On your watch, one child - a 12-week-old baby - has died and another, a year-old boy sustained horrific burns. Both these children were supposed to be in the care of the Intensive Family Engagement Service. There were serious concerns for the safety of both these children before these tragic incidents. You have not once disputed these facts. How many other children have died this year on your watch? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. The majority Hodgman Liberal Government takes the wellbeing and the best interests of children and young people very seriously. A key component of the reforms we introduced on coming to Government, is to better support families before they reach crisis. I have been very consistent in this place in that I will not be making comment on individual cases. I take my responsibilities in this place very seriously. I will comply with the strict requirements of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act to the letter. I will not be discussing or speculating on any matters which may be the subject of independent inquiries. 1 13 June 2019 Not providing an answer on this is not due to my ignorance or want to obstruct, but the fact is we are not the Coroner and we do not discuss or identify individual cases - Mr O'BYRNE - Point of order, Madam Speaker. We are not asking for particular case details. This is a very serious issue. This is about the role of government and the responsibility they have to care for children. We have asked a specific question about a number. We ask the minister, not for the details of any particular case, but to update the House on the number. Madam SPEAKER - Thank you. That is not a point of order. However, given the seriousness of the subject, I am sure the minister will do his best to address it. Mr JAENSCH - Thank you, Madam Speaker. The context of the member's question was the Intensive Family Engagement Service, which was introduced as part of our Strong Families - Safe Kids reforms, which for the first time in Tasmania now seeks to reach out to families and children at risk before harm occurs, to wrap services around them, to assist them to be better parents, and to provide a safer home for their children. This Government brought that reform in. It has been through a pilot program, which has been evaluated independently by the University of Tasmania Ms WHITE - Point of order, Madam Speaker. It goes to standing order 45. I ask you to draw the minister's attention to the question, which was asking him to detail how many children have died this year. It does not require him to breach any acts or his responsibilities as minister. It is simply about providing an update in his portfolio. Madam SPEAKER - Unfortunately, that is not a point of order either. If the minister has that information, I am sure he will make it available. Mr JAENSCH - I assure you this is relevant, Madam Speaker. The Intensive Family Engagement Scheme process is a new one. The families and children involved are not under orders in our child safety system. They engage with the program voluntarily. The service occurs when the Family and Child Safety Service, which has knowledge of the family, agree that there is risk and that family could better do its role of parenting and providing a safe place for children. We wrap the services around them to help them. I have met some of these families and some of the people who provide these services. As a parent myself, what has hit me is how much it takes for a family to come to a point where they recognise that they are not doing a good job as a parent and that they need help and to open their house to another person to come in to help them to do that job better. I take my hat off to young parents who find themselves in that position and that realisation of bringing other people into their home to help them. Ms White - Minister, you are not answering the question at all. How many children have died this year? Mr JAENSCH - These are not children on orders. These are not children in our system. These are children and families who understand they need help. We provide that help to them. The service we provide is not one from the Child Safety Service but from contracted specialist service providers who come into that house. It is not a child safety officer sitting there 24/7 guarding a child from 2 13 June 2019 harm. That is not how it works. It is a service that provides assistance to a family, tailored to their needs to help them do their job of parenting better and keep their children safe. We have provided this service. They never did. Back in the bad old days, the Child Protection Service turned up with a van and took the kids away. That's what this side of the House believes protection and prevention is all about. We are going away from that. We are reaching out earlier to families who are at risk; we are providing them with the services they need. We are helping them to be better parents and better families, keeping their kids safe before harm happens. Child Safety Services - Serious Events Review Team Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HUMAN SERVICES, Mr JAENSCH [10.09 a.m.] You confirmed last week that there are six cases of children who were known to Child Safety Services currently being investigated by the Serious Events Review Team that has been established to look at deaths or serious injury to children. How many of these six cases are investigations of a child's death? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her question again. There is nothing more important than the safety of our children. There is nothing more tragic than the death of a child. There are a number of cases in any year that are under investigation internally or through the Coroner's process, some of them dating back many years, some of them into previous governments and previous ministers' terms. I provided answers in Estimates to a range of questions in this area. We have provided some answers on notice or are in the process of doing so. I will ask my department to examine the detail of the specific question the Leader of the Opposition has raised today and ensure we provide an accurate figure when we are able to do so. I need to be clear of the context so I would appreciate it in writing. Budget 2019-20 - Social and Economic Infrastructure Mr SHELTON question to PREMIER, Mr HODGMAN [10.12 a.m.] Could you update the House on how the Hodgman majority Liberal Government 2019-20 Budget is delivering our plan to grow the economy and create jobs, support Tasmanians in need and build the infrastructure our growing state needs? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question and the opportunity to speak about Tasmania's strong economy, which is the strongest in the nation for the first time in 15 years. Now is the time to strategically invest to maintain the momentum of this growth. This is what best enables us to invest in essential services and the things that are important to Tasmanians - Health, Education and Housing. Now is also the time to be investing in the infrastructure our growing state needs - better schools, better hospitals, better public housing, renewable energy, irrigation networks 3 13 June 2019 and safer roads. These social and economic infrastructure investments are also job creating in themselves with this Budget expected to create 10 000 more jobs for Tasmanians. In the past five years since coming to government we have delivered on our plan to grow our economy, to keep our state's finances in good shape, to support Tasmanian businesses, to create more jobs, and to invest into essential services for Tasmanians. Our Budget is in good shape. This will build on the achievement of net operating surpluses over the past three years with surpluses forecast for the next four. This Budget will not only continue our plan, a plan that has delivered: 135 more police officers to keep our community safer; 222 more teachers in our schools, giving kids more opportunities through a better education; and over 500 more nurses working to give patients better health care.