Office of the Auditor General—Child protection case management system
451. Mr Jonathan Huston to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the March 2025 Office of the Auditor General's report entitled Child Protection Case Management System—Assist, which found significant weaknesses in the confidentiality and integrity of data. Can the minister assure the house that all the OAG recommendations, especially those relating to data storage, user access, logging and monitoring, have met the June 2025 implementation timeframe?
Mrs Jessica Stojkovski replied:
I thank the member for the question. This question was also raised during estimates recently. The Auditor General did a report into the management system. I commend the department, which had already instigated a project to replace the Assist client management system. The department worked really closely with the Auditor General and her team when she identified deficiencies in practice. Those deficiencies were things like saving documents to desktops. Those practices have actually ceased. The department has worked with the Auditor General to make sure that those holes have been addressed at a practice level in the department. It is continuing with the Assist program to ensure that we hold the information of some of the most vulnerable people in our state at a high standard for Western Australians. Yes, we are on progress to replace the Assist program to make sure that we have very good security around that data.
452. Mr Jonathan Huston to the Minister for Child Protection:
I have a supplementary question. Can the minister provide an assurance that the recommendations with a 31 December implementation timeframe will be met?
Mrs Jessica Stojkovski replied:
I know that the department is working through those recommendations. I do not have the exact nature of what recommendations will be met by 31 December in front of me, but I know that the department is working to ensure that the privacy and security of data, particularly on the Assist program, is safe.
The Speaker: Thank you, minister. That concludes question time.
