A $432 million plan to create a new child protection system in South Australia will be about more than just helping kids in crisis, Premier Jay Weatherill says.
Mr Weatherill has released the government's full response to the royal commission into SA's child protection system, outlining a broad vision to help families and support children from the womb to adulthood.
But the opposition says the government's failure to act on previous reviews renders it unable to do so now, while a leading welfare group wants more details on the government's plans.
The government has accepted 196 recommendations in full and another 60 in principle from the 260 handed down by former Supreme Court Justice Margaret Nyland after her royal commission.
Her investigation was sparked largely by the offending of notorious pedophile and former Families SA worker Shannon McCoole, who is serving a 35-year jail sentence after abusing children in his care.
"The vision goes beyond child protection and looks to develop a broader child development system that supports families and children from before birth into early adulthood," Mr Weatherill told parliament on Tuesday.
The government's plans include a new $45 million Early Intervention Research Directorate to better identify and support families at risk.
It will seek to cut waiting times on the child abuse reporting lines, improve the rights and experiences of foster carers and will spend $299 million on more staff and resources.
Mr Weatherill conceded the royal commission had "uncovered some uncomfortable things".
"But we're talking about our children. We have to do this," he said.
"We know there's a lot of pressures out there on families and even happy, functional families can get into trouble very quickly.
"What we need to do is to be there, to intervene early, so it doesn't turn into a much bigger problem."
SA Council of Social Service chief executive Ross Womersley said the government might still need to think deeper about resolving the root issues that lead to kids needing protection.
"Simply addressing many of the stresses and deprivations that come with poverty, might result in massive changes to the trajectory of kids' lives," he said.
But Opposition Leader Steven Marshall said the government's response was "eerily similar" to its reply to an earlier review into child protection in 2004.
"We have no confidence, whatsoever, that this government is going to be able to implement those recommendations," he told reporters.
"They have had chance after chance."
