MINISTER KNEW OF SUPERVISED SNIFFING

COMMUNITY Services Minister Christine Campbell was told more than two years
ago that welfare agency staff supervised children sniffing toxic fumes.

Ms Campbell admitted to the Herald Sun last night that she was told more
than two years ago of the controversial practice at children's homes run by
taxpayer-funded Berry Street Victoria.

Her admission directly contradicts what she and Premier Steve Bracks told
the Victorian public on Tuesday, after the Herald Sun revealed the
supervised chroming.

Ms Campbell was informed of supervised sniffing in a sworn statement and a
series of phone conversations by former Berry Street employee Chris
Scandolera in June 1999.

And in a letter to a distraught mother in March last year, Ms Campbell
admits she was aware children were chroming at the hostels.

Mr Scandolera came forward yesterday after reading Ms Campbell's denials
that she knew supervised chroming was taking place at Berry Street homes.

He signed a statutory declaration in the presence of Victoria Police to say
he alerted Ms Campbell in 1999 that staff were being made to supervise
children as they got high on paint and glue fumes.

"She was informed of everything that had taken place at the houses," Mr
Scandolera said.

"I have no doubt at all. I told her, so she knew. It's either she's lying
or she has a poor memory."

Ms Campbell, through her press secretary, initially accused Mr Scandolera
of lying.

But she later admitted he was telling the truth. "I now know that in June
1999 Mr Scandolera raised with me his concerns about Berry Street allowing
chroming and staff monitoring the children," she said.

"I was made aware of a situation of chroming where the health of the
children was monitored.

"It's clear he made that allegation.

"He did relay that staff were to supervise the children and were to make
sure they were safe. That is clear now when I go back over the documents."

She had forgotten about the matter after the September 1999 election and
taking over as minister.

"I haven't intentionally misled the public," Ms Campbell said.

"Did he tell me they were to monitor the kids? Yes, he told me they were to
monitor the kids.

"What I did not understand was that there was any formalised program of
supervised chroming."

Mr Scandolera worked for Berry Street as a residential carer from April
until June 1999.

He said he told Ms Campbell that staff were instructed not to force their
charges to give up their paint cans.

"We weren't to remove it from them or take it off them," he said.

"We were encouraged to try and get it off them in a nice way but if they
turned around and told us where to go, you couldn't take it off them.

"You did not have the right to actually physically remove it from them.

"Our job was to keep an eye on them, monitor them and make sure that if
they passed out, they were breathing."

Mr Scandolera said he observed children chroming in their bedrooms, common
living areas and in the backyard of the Doveton house at which he worked.

He approached Ms Campbell after his concerns about chroming were rebuffed.

"I didn't really think it was appropriate that they be allowed to chrome,"
he said.

"I wouldn't sit there and allow my kid to do it, so how could I allow
someone else's kid to do it?

"What was pointed out to me was a point of law - that there is no law
against chroming.

"It is not illegal to chrome so therefore it is none of our business and it
is not our right to remove or take it from them. And that to me, I thought,
was a pretty soft approach. Whether it's illegal or not, it's still pretty
harmful."

Mr Scandolera said Ms Campbell seemed "very, very concerned" at the time.
"Her big thing was that she was going to clean up these types of places and
ensure that they abide by all the rules and regulations," he said.

"She knew damn well what was happening."

"I was quite disappointed by the way the whole thing fizzed out."

The Herald Sun also saw a signed letter from Ms Campbell, as minister, to a
distraught mother in March last year in which Ms Campbell admits she was
aware children were chroming at the taxpayer-funded hostels.

The letter, to a mother whose son was made a ward of the state and put in
the care of Berry Street, acknowledges the existence of chroming at the
agency's hostels.

"I understand that you believe that whilst at the Berry Street hostel,
(your son) commenced chroming, experimenting with drugs and associating
with others with criminal records," she wrote. "There is evidence that
(your son) chromed whilst at the Berry Street hostel and he also was in
possession of and used marijuana."

Ms Campbell signed and dated the letter on March 6, 2001.

The mother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said she was
horrified that Ms Campbell did nothing to stop children and teens sniffing
solvents at the homes.

"She is the minister responsible and she knew. Why didn't she do
something?" the mother said. "To just allow it to go on without making some
policy to stop it . . . She should resign."

The woman said she was even more horrified to learn this week that staff
may have supervised her 15-year-old son and other children as they sniffed
paint.

"What message are these agencies sending our kids?" she said. "Why just let
them do it? These kids need forceful rules."

Mr Bracks on Tuesday said the State Government had no knowledge of
supervised sniffing at the Berry Street.

"The Government was unaware, the minister was unaware of this," he said on
radio 3AW.