One-stop shop not ready
The Barnett Government has failed to enact a critical recommendation of the St Andrew's Hostel child abuse inquiry - to create a "one-stop shop" for complaints - 19 months after promising it.
A bipartisan parliamentary committee has branded the inaction a "serious concern", noting the continuing royal commission into child sexual abuse is receiving up to 40 reports a day.
The one-stop shop has been a casualty of the protracted refocusing of the role of the Commissioner for Children and Young People, which Attorney-General Michael Mischin has been tinkering with for almost a year.
The office of the commissioner was chosen as the lead agency to drive the one-stop shop, but the role has been in limbo since inaugural officeholder Michelle Scott finished her five-year term last year.
Ms Scott stayed on in an acting capacity until December and there is a new Acting Commissioner, Jennifer Perkins.
But the recruitment of a permanent commissioner has been put on hold while Mr Mischin formulates the Government's response to a statutory review of its Act, which he received from the Public Sector Commission in May last year.
The commissioner oversight committee this month demanded that Mr Mischin table his response to the review before Parliament rises for its midwinter break in August.
"The outcome of that review is now 10 months overdue," chairwoman Lisa Baker told Parliament.
Mr Mischin said the delay was because he had asked for further work to be done on the review.
