Ice parents kept secret

THE State Government is refusing to reveal how many Gold Coast ice-addicted parents are allowed to keep their children despite more than 2000 cases with Child Safety officers.

Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates in State Parliament has asked Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman how many parents under department watch did not agree to a new drug-testing regimen since it was introduced in November 2016.

The Government decided to take the tough measures after it found one in three children in their care had a parent with previous methamphetamine use recorded.

Ms Fentiman said: “Information on parents who refuse to take part in mandatory drug testing is held in individual client files and records and are not part of the regular quarterly reporting.

“If parents refuse to participate in drug testing, the option of working with the family to keep the kids in the family home is off the table, leading to more intrusive intervention with the family. This would include an application for a court order to remove children.”

Ms Bates is furious after not obtaining the data, describing Ms Fentiman as “clueless” about how many kids are left with drug-addicted parents.

“It is a pretty simple question that the minister can’t answer – how many drug addict parents refused to take drug tests but still got the soft option parental agreement,” she said.

Ms Bates said she could not understand why Ms Fentiman would not answer the question, given ice and drug use was a massive problem.

Ms Fentiman said the number of families presenting with drug and alcohol issues rose from 47 per cent eight years ago to 65 per cent in 2016.

“For the vast majority – over 80 per cent – the methamphetamine recorded was ice,” she said.

Ms Fentiman revealed 681 tests had been undertaken to keep children safe between November 2016 and April this year but did not provide data on parents who tested positive yet kept their children.