Former Education Minister Grace Portolesi says sex abuse 'tsunami' was greatest challenge of her career

EXCLUSIVE: FORMER Education Minister Grace Portolesi says she was "at the mercy" of her department in relying on advice to answer questions about school sex abuse cases.

FORMER Education Minister Grace Portolesi says she felt "vulnerable" and "at the mercy" of her department when relying on its advice to answer questions about school sex abuse cases.

Ms Portolesi has described the difficulties in dealing with an "emerging tsunami" of sexual abuse revelations and attempting to deal with them with her "hands behind her back" because she was receiving bad information from her department.

"I felt vulnerable," she told the Sunday Mail.

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"The moment I went into Question Time (in Parliament) or … into a press conference I had learnt that I needed to be very careful about the information (from the department) that I used because I couldn't be certain of it."

Ms Portolesi was removed from the education portfolio by Premier Jay Weatherill in January after facing months of media scrutiny over the Government's handling of serious sexual incidents in schools.

It followed revelations late last year that parents were not told of the rape of a student at a western suburbs school in 2010, which happened when Mr Weatherill was Education Minister.

That case sparked an inquiry by former judge Bruce Debelle which found there was no evidence Mr Weatherill was told of the incident. It also found the Education Department did not brief Ms Portolesi when she took over the portfolio and continued to provide her with inaccurate or misleading information as other cases arose.

Speaking at length for the first time since she was dumped from the portfolio, Ms Portolesi said she was "questioning all the time" the advice she had been given.

"For a minister to go into Parliament and give information that is incorrect, that's how ministers lose their jobs," she said.

Ms Portolesi was understood to be devastated by Mr Weatherill's choice to replace her in the education portfolio with Jennifer Rankine, but would not be drawn on the state of their relationship today.

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Two advisers to Mr Weatherill - his chief of staff Simom Blewett and ministerial adviser Jadynne Harvey - whom the Debelle report concluded did not pass on information about the 2010 rape, have not been disciplined.

Department CEO Keith Bartley has been charged with disciplining departmental staff.

"There is no question that it was a time where I learnt a great deal," Ms Portolesi said, adding it was "without a doubt the toughest time" in her career.

"I knew that all I had to do was wait for (Mr) Debelle to report and have faith that (Mr) Debelle would uncover what had actually transpired."

Ms Portolesi said she did not believe the department had been "malicious" in providing her with incorrect information and revealed her department and Mr Bartley had apologised.

"So they do feel a burden of responsibility," she said.

It is clear Ms Portolesi feels she had unfinished business.

She cited literacy and numeracy performance and the "very, very devolved nature" of the state's education system, which caused a "disconnect between what happens between schools and head offices", as areas to be tackled.

"You can't put everything on hold while you fix things up," she said. "My objective was to maintain the public's confidence in our education system but at the same time provide answers to what were very good questions about how something like this could happen."

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