’Ice babies’ on the rise

“ICE babies” born to drug addicts are being taken from their mums at birth in record numbers across Queensland, shocking new statistics show.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealed today that 474 babies – as well as 405 still in the womb – were victims of abuse or neglect in Queensland in 2016-17. A record 456 babies were removed from their parents, at a rate of nearly nine every week.

Child Safety Minister Di Farmer said one in every three kids in the child protection system had an ice-addict parent.

And she revealed the Department of Child Safety had removed babies more than once from “a number of families” who continued having children after relinquishing neglected infants.