Harrison digs in as Govt accepts Valentine findings
Embattled Education and Child Development chief Tony Harrison has broken his silence in the wake of a damning coronial inquiry report into child protection failures that left four-year-old Chloe Valentine to die in the care of her negligent mother.
Harrison was singled out for criticism by Coroner Mark Johns, who suggested Families SA had frequently failed to adhere to the Children’s Protection Act and suggested the fledgling chief executive had fallen into his department’s “cultural acceptance” of drug abuse.
Harrison today rejected Opposition calls for his scalp, stating: “I’ve no intention of stepping down.”
“I’m highly committed to the reform process … at the end of the day I was asked to take up this position and I take it on with gusto,” he said.
“What I can say is I take this job very seriously … (it’s) a great opportunity to be part of a significant reform program.”
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Both Harrison and the Government countered that the Coroner had given undue weight to one sub-section of the Children’s Protection Act, which did not consider the department’s active adherence to the broader law.
“What’s really, really important is the coroner and I have a lot in common … (we both want) great outcomes for vulnerable children and the highest quality of social workers,” said Harrison.
“We do sadly remove some 300 children from families on an annual basis (and) these are difficult but important decisions to make.”
He said he had “never ever ever” condoned the use of illicit drugs or abuse of alcohol.
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His response came as the Weatherill cabinet today approved the Government’s response to the Coronial inquiry, giving specific or broad support to all but one of the 21 recommendations. Legislation to take custody of children born to parents guilty of previous criminal neglect, manslaughter or murder of a child will now be drawn up, as will measures to broaden income management provisions for welfare recipients.
A recommendation prohibiting the unsupervised transportation of a child under 12 was made after Chloe Valentine was sent home to her intoxicated mother in a taxi; that recommendation, though, was deemed to require further investigation as it “involves broader practical considerations around the use of volunteers and other staff”.
Cabinet and the department have also endorsed the “general principle that the interests of the child should always be the first and foremost consideration”.
The Child Protection Act will be reviewed to ensure this principle is reflected.
Child Protection Reform Minister John Rau said Harrison had the “absolute” support of cabinet.
The coroner also recommended a review to determine whether child protection operators were sufficiently resourced. Harrison conceded he “would always like additional resources” but said: “My responsibility is to effectively use the resources I’m provided with as a chief executive.”
“We can streamline our internal processes,” he said.
“The department has been embarking on a major redesign … we can do things better; we need to do things better.”
He admitted there were “opportunities as far back as 2008 where we should have looked at removing Chloe from a very dysfunctional family environment” but insisted under his tenure the troubled bureaucracy was “dramatically reconfiguring and restructuring”, with “more than 1000 workers moved to different roles”.
“I intend to continue that and expedite it as best we can,” he said.
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