PARLIAMENT OF TASMANIA HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY REPORT OF DEBATES Thursday 15 October 2020 REVISED EDITION Thursday 15 October 2020 The Speaker, Ms Hickey, took the Chair at 10 a.m., acknowledged the Traditional People and read Prayers. QUESTIONS Brahminy Foundation Program Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HUMAN SERVICES, Mr JAENSCH [10.03 a.m.] After weeks spent defending the Brahminy program and its founder against allegations of identity fraud and mistreatment of children, there was a marked shift in your language yesterday. You have finally acknowledged that Tasmania should have its own program capable of accommodating at-risk children, one that falls under the jurisdiction of Tasmanian authorities like the Commissioner for Children and Young People. Local organisations in Tasmania for years have been trying to engage with your Government to establish a local program and have been dismissed. Only since serious allegations about the Brahminy program have been raised in the media has your Government started to talk to local organisations about developing and funding a local program. Can you outline a clear time frame for the establishment of a Tasmanian based program? What transitional arrangements will you put in place to make sure the children in the Brahminy program can be returned to Tasmania? ANSWER Madam Speaker, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for her question. Last week the Leader of the Opposition made a political decision that she knew best and that these kids must be removed from Many Colours 1 Direction and returned to Tasmania immediately. Since then she has heard from me and from my department, the children's legal guardian and the children themselves, that the young people are safe and well. They are making good progress in their treatment, they are not ready to leave, they do not want to leave, and we have no equivalent treatment program here and now to bring them home to. Ms White also heard that her continuing calls for these young people to be removed again are doing them harm. We will complete our review of the Many Colours 1 Direction program and act on its findings, most definitely, but we will always act in the best interests and the best available advice - Ms O'BYRNE - Point of order, Madam Speaker. The question goes to the acceptance of whether a Tasmanian program should be developed, and when that happens - Madam SPEAKER - That is not a point of order. I believe the minister is getting to something like that. Thursday 15 October 2020 1 Mr JAENSCH - Madam Speaker, we will always act on the best available advice and always in the best interests of the children concerned. Ms White should do the same. She should take notice of the information she was given in her briefing yesterday - Ms White - When are you going to set up a Tasmanian program? What did I just say to you that you have a problem with, minister? Madam SPEAKER - Order, please. Mr JAENSCH - the privileged and confidential briefing we made available to her yesterday, and put kids' lives and their recovery, their recuperation, ahead of her political interests. Ms White - I asked you to explain the time frame for a Tasmanian-based program. What are you on about? Mr JAENSCH - In the briefing yesterday, Ms White asked this question too and was told definitively by the department that they do not want to set a time frame around this because the most important thing is to get it right. We are on the record and have been for some time that our ambition would be to have a program in Tasmania that is able to deliver services for children with these complex needs. We have been to market in 2018, a request for information process which unfortunately did not identify suitable programs amongst the small number of Tasmanian organisations that made submissions. In June this year we sought requests for information from organisations to develop a professional carer model which would deliver therapeutic family-based interventions to assist children in these situations as well. Members interjecting. Madam SPEAKER - Order, please Mr JAENSCH - We are working and talking with a range of organisations including some of those who have made public statements over the last couple weeks, saying that they would be interested in delivering aspects of these programs, and we will continue to. We will deliver on the commitment that we have made to respond to the recommendation of the Commissioner for Children and Young People and our out-of-home care monitoring report which recommended that we develop a program and a capability of this nature in Tasmania. We will work on that with everybody who is able to be part of that solution. The important issue is that there has been no provider step forward with that capability in Tasmania. We are going to have to develop it, and bring the elements of that together and the work that we are doing on reviewing Many Colours 1 Direction will inform that process over coming months and years, if that is what it takes to deliver the right program for Tasmanian kids. Thursday 15 October 2020 2 Until then, we will source those services that are right for our kids wherever they may be and we make no apology for finding the right tools for the job of helping those kids to repair their lives and prepare for adulthood. I suspect from what we are hearing together, that Ms White is shifting her position. From a 'bring them home at all costs' political fix, now that she has taken some information on board, as she should, and talking about how we develop capability here. I welcome Ms White's backdown on her position. It is the right decision to take and I welcome that, Ms White. Ms WHITE - Point of order, Madam Speaker. The minister is misleading the House and misrepresenting my comments. I specifically asked in the question, what are the transitional arrangements to bring these children home. I ask you to draw his attention to the question. Madam SPEAKER - He has one second to answer it, and now he has none. Brahminy Foundation Program Ms WHITE question to MINISTER for HUMAN SERVICES, Mr JAENSCH [10.09 a.m.] Your judgment has been called into question because of the way you have handled legitimate concerns that have been raised about the Brahminy program. You have sent vulnerable children out of sight and out of mind thousands of kilometres away. If care concerns and serious allegations about the identity of the person behind the program had not been raised by the media, it is questionable whether you would have taken any action at all. Today, the Mercury editorial described you as 'beleaguered' and says that your latest slip- ups have eroded trust. It also says - Mr Jaensch tried to downplay the video, claiming it was a joy ride and not a theft, and suggesting the media was somehow at fault for publicising it. You might choose to blame the media for holding you to account, but if they had not started reporting serious allegations about the Brahminy program in September, who knows whether you would ever have acted. You have already admitted that you do not care about the identity of the person you have placed these children in the care of. Will you also admit that you would not have acted to review the program or assessed local program options in Tasmania if the media had not started raising these serious allegations in September? ANSWER Madam Speaker, as I said several times yesterday, the review that is under way will include a review of any of the matters, concerns and allegations that have been raised in the media, or referred to in commentary about that over this recent period, including a review of historical care concerns that have been alluded to and raised in this place. All those matters will be given consideration in the review. I will have a report with me by the end of the month. Thursday 15 October 2020 3 We will take action on any findings that require us to change what we are doing right now, all in the interests of the young people. In relation to the opening comment from Ms White just then about my downplaying the incident involving a young person involved with the Many Colours 1 Direction program, I was not trying to dismiss or downplay it. I was trying to put some balance in. I saw in the media, and in this place, that young person was being referred to as a thief and a hoon. That is not what that young person is. That is a young Tasmanian life up there which has had an awful experience of trust abuse. The young person is in a difficult place and we are doing our best to assist them. Sometimes in the course of that, those young people's behaviour leads them to do things that are not the right thing to do. We do not need to add to the challenges that they face by layering judgment on them either directly or by putting information out which encourages the ugly Facebook trolls and keyboard warriors to put their own judgment on those young people and their lives and circumstances. Madam Speaker, that is my intention. I am re-framing that situation that was referred to to more accurately to reflect the incident itself and the circumstances of the young person involved. Halls Island, Lake Malbena - Development Ms O'CONNOR question to MINISTER for ENVIRONMENT and PARKS, Mr JAENSCH [10.13 a.m.] A large and growing constituency of Tasmanians from every possible walk of life are opposed to the privatisation of Halls Island in Lake Malbena, an EOI proposal for which you carry responsibility.