2015-09-21
NINA SPRINGLE: My question is to the Minister for Families and Children. Last Friday what the minister has called a wide-ranging expert advisory group met for the first time to discuss its review into Victoria's entire child protection system, called the Roadmap for Reform. Among the four experts listed in the minister's press release were Deutsche Bank's Australian and New Zealand divisions vice-president, Steven Skala, and the National Australia Bank's group executive in governance and reputation, Michaela Healey. Can the minister guarantee that the presence of senior executives of private companies on her expert advisory group will not mean that the Roadmap for Reform will recommend further privatisation and outsourcing of the Victorian government's child protection and out-of-home care responsibilities?
MINISTER MIKAKOS: I thank the member for her question. I can advise the member that in fact the first meeting I chaired of my expert advisory group did in fact meet on Friday. This is a group that I have tasked to assist me with the Roadmap for Reform. As I have said to the house previously, we have a number of challenges in the child protection and out-of-home care system. I take my responsibilities as minister in this portfolio extremely seriously, and since day one as minister I have been working assiduously with the department and with the sector to look at making improvements to that system.
We have already put in place a number of reforms that I am very proud of in terms of improving outcomes for children in out-of-home care, in terms of improving the capacity of the child protection system to respond, a very positive budget outcome — a 17 per cent increase in funding in this year's child protection and family services budget compared to last year's budget — a range of initiatives right across the continuum of care in the budget in relation to making improvements to the system.
The Roadmap for Reform is a project that we will be working very closely with the community sector on to make these improvements. Apart from the road map, which has a very broad membership, Ms Springle has highlighted some individuals that do bring some commercial expertise to that advisory group. I do not apologise for that. I think it is important to have a broad range of expertise when you are looking at making systemic reform of the system.
I can assure the member that there is a very wideranging membership of that expert group. It goes to people with academic backgrounds, it goes to people who are CEOs of some of our current child and family welfare agencies and it goes to people who work with Aboriginal families and children. We have a very wideranging membership of that expert advisory group. I am happy to provide the full list of the membership to the member at a later point in time, but I do not apologise for the fact that I have brought into that expert advisory group individuals with some commercial expertise. I am very grateful to them for giving of their time, because this is a voluntary expert advisory group; no-one is being remunerated for their participation. They are willing to devote their time and energy on a voluntary basis to look at improving outcomes for the most vulnerable children and families in our community.
We also have on that committee experts who have an early childhood education background. They bring their own expertise as well. What I am looking at doing is ensuring that our response to vulnerable children and families takes a wideranging perspective and that we look at how we can intervene as early as possible, including through our universal early childhood services, to provide support for vulnerable children and families.
I can assure the member that my agenda is not one about privatisation. My agenda is about improving service delivery and improving outcomes to the most vulnerable children and families in our state. I look forward to having wideranging conversations with people in the community who have an interest in these issues from wideranging backgrounds, whether they have a business and commercial background, whether they are people who work in the community sector or whether they are people who work in the early childhood sector, and any other interested individual.
NINA SPRINGLE: I thank the minister for her answer. Listening to her talk, it was gratifying to hear that there are other experts from a wide range of disciplines in that group. Would the minister be prepared to rule out any further privatisation of that sector?
MINISTER MIKAKOS: I thank the member for her question. My agenda is not one of doing what the previous government did, which was a recommissioning of our mental health services and recommissioning of our drug and alcohol services, which caused absolute havoc for some of the most vulnerable people in our community. We as a government are now having to pick up the pieces and address the problems that the previous government caused.
I want to hear wideranging ideas and thoughts about how we can improve the system from people who have an interest in these issues. We are at the start of the process. We are looking at taking the ideas and thoughts from people right across the community about how we can achieve better outcomes for vulnerable children and vulnerable families in our community. I can assure the member that my agenda is a very different one from that of the previous government.