Announcing today an imminent call for Expressions of Interest, Premier Jay Weatherill suggested the office would have “the power to investigate at a systemic level the rights, development and wellbeing of children” but would “not examine individual complaints”.

That drew the ire of the Opposition, with Liberal leader Steven Marshall insisting “we want to have a children’s commissioner with investigative powers”.

“The Liberal Party will be supporting the model put forward by Margaret Nyland in her Royal Commision recommendations,” he said.

“If the Government’s bill doesn’t include that we’ll amend it.”

The Nyland royal commission’s report said it “does not consider it appropriate that a Children’s Commissioner be a complaints body, resolving or adjudicating individual disputes”, however is considered it “essential that it have extensive powers to conduct investigations into systemic issues, including thorough examination of individual circumstances where such an investigation has the capacity to highlight systemic issues”.

The Government’s proposed bill suggests the commissioner could have certain powers to “inquire into and investigate matters related to the rights, development and wellbeing of children and young people at a systemic level”.

Weatherill said the new office would be “an independent voice that cuts through and constantly demands the attention that the most vulnerable in our community deserve”.

But Marshall was skeptical.

“Let’s be quite serious: child protection is in a state of crisis after 14 years of failed Labor administration,” he said.