Speeches

HON ALISON XAMON (North Metropolitan) [5.26 pm]: I rise tonight to raise my concerns, which I am sure all members share, about our responsibility as a community to ensure that we do everything we can to protect children from harm. I specifically want to speak tonight about some of the deficiencies in the Western Australia child abuse prevention system, most notably the lack of independent oversight to prevent child abuse in institutional settings; the lack of child advocacy services; and the need to put in place child-friendly complaint systems.

HON ALISON XAMON (North Metropolitan) [6.20 pm]: As members would be aware, I have spoken quite a number of times on the issue of the Shenton Park Rehabilitation Hospital site. There are some additional developments that I will speak to tonight. There is a general agreement that the patch of bushland that we are talking about is a threatened ecological community because it contains banksia woodland.