Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee, , 5:57:30 to 6:08:05
Senator Sullivan questions the Minister's lack of a public statement regarding a major child abuse case (Operation Moonby) and the sensitivity of her social media communications.
Topics: Child safety, AFP
Speakers: Senator Jess Walsh, Senator Matt O'Sullivan, Unknown Speaker, Senator Marielle Smith
O. Sullivan. Thank you very much, chair. Uh on the 13th of July, Hamish Tate was publicly named while facing 329 charges with the police alleging 136 victims. The AFP established the operation Moonby web page to provide parents with information about his employment history, support services, and who to at the time, I could not find anywhere a public statement from you, Minister, or a post directing parents at all to that What I did, however, find was a post from you on your social media about Mr. Tickle and other characters. I don't know if you reviewed the and I'm happy to table this if required. I don't know if you're able to see the comments on that post, but it was overwhelmed by parents who have quite distressed at the insensitivity of your post and your lack of action and communication in relation to directing parents to a trusted AFP website that was created. or page on a website that gives parents the confidence around or information the employment history of Mr. Tate. Did you read any of those comments,
>> Uh, I'm aware of the post that you're talking about, Senator, but it is true that I don't generally read um comments on my social media posts.
Why did you choose not to make any public statement about one of the most uh instances of of child sexual abuse in a child care center over many many years? Why' you choose not to make a comment about that but just simply went to talk about a a release of resource that the government's providing through this Mr. ical uh you know resources.
>> Um Senator, I can go through um some of uh matters relating to to Mr. Tate. Um, I understand that it was the 13th of July that the AFP released the media statement outlining the offenses uh and establishing um the local contact point which was um set up with New South Wales. Um I um communication uh with families on these sorts of matters as we've canvased in this committee um previously um in relation to the Victorian serial offender um is generally done um in liaison with local state um services Um and I think this local contact point was um you know in that category of having been established with New South Wales. I mean from um my perspective Senator um the work that we have done on keeping children safe um over the last year um has um never been done before. Um we have made the biggest changes to the national quality framework um that have ever been made since it was introduced. Um there is um a half a billion dollars of investment going in across the country to helping keep children safe. Um I think the you know during during the week that you're talking about um education ministers met yet again um talking about um how we can work together to strengthen safety and quality. Um ministers were updated on the progress of the reforms that we delivered. um reforms that were um introduced through education ministers um in a bipartisan way uh and with the support of um the then shadow minister the year prior uh in August, Senator Danium. Uh and um what I have been focused on really every day um is the important work of helping to keep children um safe in early learning. Um and it really is my view, Senator, that this line of questioning is an unfortunate line of questioning because um apparently until now um the opposition has taken a bipartisan support um approach on working on these matters of safety in early childhood education and care.
>> There is no question of of our support for those me. Minister, I just focused >> Point of order. The minister is taking up enormous amounts of time in answering this question. I asked a very direct question and I'll ask it again if it assists so that I can get a direct Minister, you are the minister responsible for early learning, are you
>> Early childhood education. Yeah.
>> Yep. So uh why did you decide not to provide any response at all to the announcement to the the media reporting
of uh this case? I think the um response uh that I have made as minister and that the government has made uh is to introduce the biggest changes to the national quality framework that have ever been made. Uh and to make sure that those changes are on track and are on time. Uh and what we're focused on, Senator, is doing the work every day to help keep children safe.
And so to take exception to your accusation that we are not united on ensuring that the protection of children and the measures that need to be taken is absolute paramount. I'm going to the point that the community, parents, there is a massive distrust and a breakdown of trust of early learning and child care in this country and we need to do everything together to make sure that that trust is rebuilt and and I commend all of the work and I've I go to great lengths to commend all of the work that providers and individual child care educators and workers are doing to address those issues. My question is, why did you not provide any public statement related to this terrible case of of of abuse? And do you not think that it was insensitive that the next thing you would say online is a post about Mr. Tickle?
I I don't have my week's posting um with me in terms of what I what I posted um online that week around um the middle of July um in general. But what I would say um Senator is that the communication with families about these sorts of incidents is incredibly important. Um, the AFP has a particular approach to the way that they do it. Um, I do think that when it comes to communicating with families about specific types of incidents and offenses, um, that that job is best done, as it was in Victoria, um, by the people who are standing up the operation to support families. Um what the AFP does of course and I know that you wouldn't dispute this and I'm not in any way suggesting that you would Senator but what the AFP does is um extraordinary work um we all support the work that they do um in communicating um with the families of um potential victims who they've identified uh and then going about their work um to identify um further further services where these alleged um perpetrators um have also worked. Um when they do that um and when they put that information up online um it is incredibly important that there is local support available um like the local contact point that was set up in New South Wales um like the similar arrangement that was put in place um in Victoria um to support families um through these um incredibly um challenging times. Um so my evidence is that it is the AFP and the local contact points who are best placed to communicate with families. Um when it comes to the um broader um focus of the government on helping to keep children safe. Um we um are doing the right reforms. The reforms are on track. Um we are transparent about the reforms. Um, you know, there is public reporting about the reforms that is available. Uh, and of course, um, families can access more information than they ever could before because of the reforms that we've