A Queensland Commission of Inquiry has delivered a damning report into the state's child protection system. It detailed evidence of sexual abuse in residential care settings, and delivered 52 recommendations.The government has announced it will remove all children under five from residential care, and respond to the recommendations within two months.
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TRANSCRIPT:
A warning this story contains references to child sexual abuse. Please take care while listening.
A warning this story contains references to child sexual abuse. Please take care while listening.
The Queensland government has announced all children under five will be removed from residential care after a damning report revealed widespread sexual abuse in the system.
The Commission of Inquiry chaired by former Federal Court Judge Paul Anastassiou found the number of children in residential state care had more than tripled over a decade.
Minister for Child Safety, Domestic and Family Violence, Amanda Camm, has accused the former government of failing vulnerable children.
"Labor ministers became more and more reliant on residential care placement placements that created houses of horror where children experienced sexual abuse, violence, neglect, and where providers line their pocket on the back of this vulnerability."
She says the system has ultimately delivered more trauma for children.
"And potentially greater safety risk than if we had kept them with their families. And a child under five, to wake up to a different set of eyes and hands who are going to be looking after you in the evening, to wake up the next morning to a complete stranger that was what was occurring under the former Labor government."
The Commission of Inquiry found that Queensland now has almost as many children in residential care as every other state and territory combined.
"Queensland has 13,568 children living in out-of-home care, by far the largest number of children in care anywhere in our nation. There are 2,258 children in residential care, including 78 under five, and 472 under 10."
The Commission of Inquiry heard harrowing testimony from witnesses who suffered abuse in state care over almost 50 hearings in 10 months across the state.
It found 67 per cent of reported incidents of sexual abuse made to the Department of Child Safety involved children in residential care settings.
Anne Hollonds is a psychologist and former National Children's Commissioner who began her career working in residential care.
"I learned then, and I've learned since that the state is a very poor substitute for the people in the child's life who love them. The people who love the children really are the ones that are, you know, much more likely to be able to provide the kind of care that children need, particularly if they get the support that is needed if they themselves are struggling."
She says putting a child into any kind of state care carries significant risk.
"Putting children into residential care is an even higher risk, so the risk increases if you go down that path. Putting young children under five into residential care is extremely high risk policy, and it's also lazy policy, because the outcomes for those children are very poor, and also the outcomes for our communities."
Minister Camm agrees that finding more foster carers will be key to fixing the system.
"And we recognise their extraordinary contribution that they make to children every day. There are thousands of Queenslanders who open their homes, and my message to them today is: we need more of you. We need 1,000 more foster carers in this state, and we will deliver. They will provide safety, stability and hope, and their contribution cannot be overstated."
Half of the children in Queensland in out-of-home care are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, despite representing less than 10 per cent of the population.
Last week, a report from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Commission found they were increasingly being placed in residential care.
Outgoing commissioner Natalie Lewis said severing children's connections to family, kin, culture and Country compounds the issues they're facing.
Anne Hollonds agrees.
"Well, I would urge the Queensland government to look at what's happening in other jurisdictions that are doing better on that score, better on finding caring foster families, supporting foster families to provide that that care that very young children need who are applying the the Aboriginal Child Placement principle, where possible, placing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with families from their own culture."
She says investment and priority access to healthcare, education, and disability support services are fundamental to improving child protection outcomes.
The cost of keeping children in out-of-home care has also come into focus, rising from $753 million to $2.36 billion between 2011 and 2024.
Deb Frecklington is the Queensland Attorney-General.
"The annual cost of residential care also escalated sharply from around three hundred thousand dollars in twenty nineteen to almost half a million dollars per child. The former Labor government repeatedly failed to make timely and sustained investment in family-based care and early intervention, contributing directly to the explosion in residential care placements."
The Shadow Minister for Child Safety, Domestic and Family Violence, Corrine McMillan has accused the Liberal government of passing the buck.
"It is clear that this minister has failed to protect vulnerable children through her poor decisions, her poor oversight and her poor leadership. We may never know the true scope of the impact of these poor decisions because she cut the inquiry short to cover her back. Again and again the minister does nothing but obfuscates and points the finger. I hate to break to it the minister: the buck stops with the minister."
In the day since the Commission of Inquiry report was tabled, blame for a botched case management and information system has been a key point of contention.
The $183 million Unify system has suffered critical failures since launching in April last year, and exposing children to harm, according to a report from Deloitte.
This didn't form part of the Commission of Inquiry, which made 52 recommendations that the government has said it will consider.
A sub-committee has been convened, with the government promising to respond within two months.
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