Tuesday, 18 February 2020

Child protection

Mr WAKELING (Ferntree Gully) (12:18): My question is to the Minister for Child Protection. Last week the Treasurer announced that the Labor government will be imposing $4 billion of cuts, and he has said he is looking at every line item. With more than 14 000 phone calls to child protection going unanswered between January 2018 and June 2019, will the minister guarantee that not one dollar of these cuts will be made in child protection?

Mr DONNELLAN (Narre Warren North—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers) (12:19): I thank the member for his question. I think that is the second question I have had since I have been put in this role, so I very much welcome that. As the shadow minister would know, the protection of our children above all else is the most important thing any government can do. If you look at our continuing investment in this sector, it is substantial. Over the last five years we have put an extra $2.5 billion into the sector to provide better services. We have had over 650 extra child protection officers in that period of time, unlike some other people who actually did not put one extra child protection officer in over four years. In other words, our case allocation rate is at 90 per cent, and our average allocation per case-holding officer is between 12 and 15 per officer. So in other words, we have put in substantial investment, because—

Ms Ryan: On a point of order, Speaker, this was a very, very simple question that should have a simple answer, a yes or no answer as to whether the minister can guarantee that none of these $4 billion cuts will affect the child protection portfolio, and I would ask you to bring the minister back to answering that question.

Ms Allan: On the point of order, Speaker, I make two points. Firstly, points of order are not an opportunity, as we are seeing on a number of occasions, for those opposite to repeat the question or debate the question through points of order. Secondly, the minister was being very, very clear. The question went to investment in the child protection area. The minister was being, very, very clear and concise about the investment in child protection, and I would suggest he be allowed to continue to answer his question.

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not uphold the point of order. I cannot direct the minister how to answer a question. He is being relevant to the question.

Mr DONNELLAN: We have a very strong record in this case, as I was trying to get the message across to the shadow minister. If you look at their allocation rate when they were in, it was about 81 per cent. So we have actually ensured that 5700 extra children have a case officer dealing with their case. We have put the case officers in, we have improved the training and we have actually made a commitment. So if you look at our history of investment in this sector, it is in stark contrast—I might add, in stark contrast—to the former minister, who failed comprehensively to put one extra child protection officer in in four years.

Mr Wakeling: On a point of order, Speaker, in terms of relevance, this is a very important question. The community wants a guarantee from the minister that there will not be any cuts from the child protection portfolio. It is a very important question. The Victorian community wants to hear a very clear answer on this important issue, and the minister must provide a very clear answer to Victorians. Will there or won’t there be a cut?

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister did veer away from answering the question. He is to come back to answering the question.

Mr DONNELLAN: As I have indicated very clearly, we have got a very strong record in this space. The budget will be delivered in the coming months and, accordingly, that will be the day the budget is delivered.

Mr WAKELING (Ferntree Gully) (12:23): Noting that the minister failed to provide a commitment that there would not be cuts in this portfolio, last year two long-term foster carers from Sunbury made the very difficult decision to cease foster caring due to mismanagement and a lack of support from his department. Minister, can you guarantee that Labor’s $4 billion of cuts will not see more carers leaving the foster care system on your watch?

Mr DONNELLAN (Narre Warren North—Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers) (12:23): I thank the shadow minister for his question. Obviously the shadow minister is not aware of the enormous funding increase we have put in for carers full stop, whether they be foster carers or kinship carers, whether it be our carers hub or whether it be our kinship finding model. We have put substantial investment in to support carers because we understand how important they are to the sector. The only failure in this room was the former government’s failure to actually ensure that the child protection system was adequately funded and we had enough child protection officers to protect children.