BROKEN SYSTEM, BROKEN PROMISE
Child Safety escorting juveniles to score drugs; kids hungry despite $500k-a-year care; youths allowed to roam streets with gangs – and LNP-Labor’s joint fix talks collapse
JOINT Labor-LNP talks to fix Child Safety’s crisis have collapsed three months after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk ordered both parties work “in a bipartisan and constructive way”. The unprecedented alliance is in disarray despite a crisis including officials escorting juveniles to score dope, hungry kids in care and youths roaming homeless with gangs.
LABOR and the LNP cannot agree on fixing the Child Safety crisis, despite reports of young children living on the streets and concerned carers being depressed and suicidal.
The Bulletin can reveal both major parties have “closed the door” on a bipartisan overhaul of the Child Safety system, less than three months after it was announced.
Foster carers who had lobbied for the reforms are devastated.
A foster carer with two decades of experience wrote: “Our most vulnerable children are being placed in situations under the watch of the Child Safety department that are often far worse than those they were removed from.”
Private agencies in “resicare” were pocketing up to $1m per child, the carer said.
“Children without food, without sheets on their beds and not attending school are hallmarks of this system,” the carer said.
Another long-term foster carer said the reforms should include an investigation into unsubstantiated harm reports.
“These demoralise good carers and there are quite a few carers who have taken their lives. We live for these kids,” the carer said.
“Someone needs to vet Child Safety officers’ work. So often there are empty files that go to court and the children are reunified.”
The Bulletin detailed in August how Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had asked Child Safety Minister Di Farmer to work with the LNP “in a bipartisan and constructive way”.
The ceasefire came after months of lobbying by the Bulletin to overhaul the system. Investigations by the newspaper included Child Safety officers escorting juveniles to score dope off their mother; kids going hungry despite taxpayers paying resicare providers on average $500,000 per child each year; and children allowed to roam the streets homeless with gangs.
Approached by the Bulletin for an update, Ms Farmer said Opposition frontbenchers Stephen Bennett and Ros Bates had both declined to attend meetings.
“(They) have both backed out of bipartisan meetings I have organised with Child Safety stakeholder organisations,” she said. “Deb Frecklington and the LNP are yet to reveal to Queenslanders the full details of their Child Safety policy proposal and the cost of implementing it.
“It seems the LNP is more interested in grabbing headlines than keeping vulnerable young Queenslanders safe.”
But Mr Bennett said: “This is rich, coming from the Minister who has overseen an utter failure in child safety. We attended a briefing and provided a written submission for the Minister to consider.
“She chose not to back our plan. There is no bipartisanship when it comes to child safety.”
Ms Bates described the Palaszczuk Government as “the most uncaring” government after 18 children had died in suspicious circumstances in five years.
“I’ve been fobbed off by Labor’s Child Safety Minister when I asked her to urgently intervene to ensure a 12-yearold homeless girl was getting the care she needs. I’ve also written to the Queensland Mental Health Commissioner and the Public Trustee about this young girl whose mental and physical health is spiralling,” she said.
Premier Palaszczuk said: “It is clear from Mr Bennett’s comment that the LNP have closed the door on a bipartisan approach and engagement with the government and stakeholders.
“If Deb Frecklington could show leadership and instruct her shadow ministers to take up the offer of bipartisanship on this very important issue, the door remains open.
“Until this time, Labor cannot comment on the LNP’s policy which lacks detail and does not appear to be properly costed.”
The plan would have turned the Department of Child Safety into a 24-hour “child protection force” akin to the Queensland Police Service.