ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
more people. We have the money on the table; we are going to get more people. That is clearly what
direction will be given to the child services.
Ms CARNEY: Well, some kids in the Northern Territory, if they could understand the messages
coming from this government, would be well and truly sick and tired of this government saying, ‘We
are going to do this and we are going to do that’. Clearly, not enough has been done.
Mr VATSKALIS: We have been doing things. From July 2008 to April 2010, both Child Abuse Task
Force officers in the south have worked with 370 individual children. We have 107 arrests …
Ms CARNEY: Minister, my question is in relation to staff. If I want to hear more about what the task
force does - as if I did not already know - I would have asked you that question. So, thank you, you
have answered my question which was very specific in relation to employment at CAT Southern
Region.
I would like to ask you now about recommendations made by the Coroner in the Melville inquest, the
findings of which were delivered in January this year. The Coroner said, at page 77 of his findings
that, the Care and Protection of Children Act is
… deficient in that it weakens the statutory obligations of the minister or, relevantly the CEO,
to provide the protection needed for those children.
My question is: the act has not been changed, why not?
Mr VATSKALIS: A number of the proposed recommendations are likely to be impacted by the new
national standard for children’s care which is going to be finalised by the end of 2010 and, any
legislative change we make in consort with the new standards, as required. A lot of changes will be
made to operation of policy and practice to reflect recommendation 1 to 8, and recommendations 9 to
14 concentrate on operation of …
Ms CARNEY: Can you just slow down a bit, please?
Mr VATSKALIS: Okay. The recommendations 1 to 8 refer to changes that will be made to operation
and policies, and recommendations 9 to 14 concentrate on operational issues with a focus on
improving internal systems. As Clare mentioned before, this is already under way.
However, changes to the act will take place because it is more likely some of these amendments to
the act to be impacted by the National Standards for Children in Care, and we have to do it in consort
with these standards. Clare can …
Ms CARNEY: No, thank you, I have the answer to my question, thank you.
Mr CHAIRMAN: The minister can choose how to answer and, if he wishes to defer to an officer he is
allowed to.
Ms CARNEY: Mr Chairman, he answered the question …
Mr VATSKALIS: I would like Clare to explain it …
Mr CHAIRMAN: And he is allowed to expand.
Mr VATSKALIS: I would like her to explain it …
Ms CARNEY: So you can learn more about what you need to do.
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
Mr VATSKALIS: No, because you can hear more about what we are doing.
Ms CARNEY: Well, he is not undeserving. Clare.
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: We are in the process of making operational amendments to our policies
and procedures to reflect the recommendations that were outlined to be put into legislation, but given
there is the inquiry going on and we are likely to have quite a few legislative changes come out of the
inquiry anticipated, then the thinking was that we would do all of those changes all at once following
the inquiry recommendations coming down.
Ms CARNEY: And you agree with that, minister?
Mr VATSKALIS: Absolutely! That is why I want you to hear it from the director, so it is not politics, it is
real.
Ms CARNEY: There are national standards, but I gather from you, Clare, agreed to by the minister,
that you will also wait for the inquiry to consider these?
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: But in the meantime we are changing our operational policy to reflect the
recommendations so that, in practice, that is what we are going to work towards.
Ms CARNEY: I propose to go through some of the specific recommendations of the inquiry. The
minister rattled off chunks of this and chunks of that, but my questions are specific for good reason. At
page 78 of the Melville Inquest findings, the Coroner said that the act contains a similar provision to
section 53(1) of the old Community Welfare Act, requiring an authorised person to visit a child in the
care of the minister at least every two months, and to require the person to furnish a report
concerning the child and his or her welfare, but there was nothing in the new act similar to section
53(1) of the old act requiring a worker to see the child every two months. Why has not that act, and if
your answer is the same, just forHansard, please say no, refer to above, or whatever, but why has not
that part of the act been changed?
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: It is the same answer, that we are changing our operational policy to
reflect the recommendations at this stage.
Ms CARNEY: Okay, so changing policy. I take it your answer is the same for waiting for the inquiry as
well in September? So the policy is changing, and you are waiting for the inquiry, and there is a link
with national standards towards the end of the year, correct?
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: Yes.
Ms CARNEY: Okay. The Coroner identified another problem and said that:
One of the critical deficiencies identified in this inquest was the absence of the benchmarks
by which case workers could determine whether a carer was providing an adequate standard
of care to the children. Section 63 of theCommunity Welfare Act set out some basic standards
with which the minister was required to be satisfied before registering a carer. In my
opinion, the Coroner said, it is important that certain minimum benchmarks be set out in
regulations which have legal force.
Why has not the act and regulations been amended accordingly?
Ms GARDINER-BARNES: We have draft regulations that are in train at the moment and they are
expected to go to Executive Council in July this year.
Ms CARNEY: Were they the draft regulations about which Ms Scott gave evidence in June last year?
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