THE state government has been accused of hiding from scrutiny by releasing a report into a major child protection failure on the last day of a parliamentary week. Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma last Monday ordered an urgent report into how 151 North-West child safety alerts were ignored in the past year. It has since been revealed that her department knew of the crisis since July, and were working to fix the problem for weeks before Mrs Petrusma was finally told. Mrs Petrusma will publish the report on Thursday. Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White on Tuesday told Parliament she was staggered by the time it was taking to compile the urgent document. "Eight days later we are still none the wiser as to what this report has revealed, if it has revealed anything," Ms White said. "Also, what the Minister is going to do to ensure a crisis of this nature does not occur again." Mrs Petrusma said she would not be rushed into releasing the report. "I will not be pre-empting the findings of this report; it was never to be rushed," Mrs Petrusma said. Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said the timing of the report was designed to take the heat off Mrs Petrusma. "The reason the Minister has delayed the release of the review report into why 151 babies and children were abandoned by the state for an extended period of time until this Thursday is because of politics," she said. But Bass Liberal MHA Sarah Courtney said Labor and the Greens were being impatient and hypocritical. "They come in here and swing accusations at the Minister who is working hard, who has ordered an immediate report and will be getting that on Thursday," she said. "This failure has been going back a decade and yet they do not have the patience to wait 10 days on this critical and important issue."
THE state government has been accused of hiding from scrutiny by releasing a report into a major child protection failure on the last day of a parliamentary week.
Human Services Minister Jacquie Petrusma last Monday ordered an urgent report into how 151 North-West child safety alerts were ignored in the past year.
It has since been revealed that her department knew of the crisis since July, and were working to fix the problem for weeks before Mrs Petrusma was finally told.
Mrs Petrusma will publish the report on Thursday.
Labor human services spokeswoman Rebecca White on Tuesday told Parliament she was staggered by the time it was taking to compile the urgent document.
"Eight days later we are still none the wiser as to what this report has revealed, if it has revealed anything," Ms White said.
"Also, what the Minister is going to do to ensure a crisis of this nature does not occur again."
Mrs Petrusma said she would not be rushed into releasing the report.
"I will not be pre-empting the findings of this report; it was never to be rushed," Mrs Petrusma said.
Greens leader Cassy O'Connor said the timing of the report was designed to take the heat off Mrs Petrusma.
"The reason the Minister has delayed the release of the review report into why 151 babies and children were abandoned by the state for an extended period of time until this Thursday is because of politics," she said.
But Bass Liberal MHA Sarah Courtney said Labor and the Greens were being impatient and hypocritical.
"They come in here and swing accusations at the Minister who is working hard, who has ordered an immediate report and will be getting that on Thursday," she said.
"This failure has been going back a decade and yet they do not have the patience to wait 10 days on this critical and important issue."
