Election stymies action plans Card system left in limbo

CHILD safety improvements in Queensland will be put on the backburner until the election is completed.

The Townsville Bulletin yesterday revealed more than 5000 people were currently working with children without a Blue Card due to a loophole in the system.

Under the current policy people can be employed to work with children while their Blue Card applications are pending.

In May, it saw a Townsville school employ a teacher’s aidewho allegedly showed a nude image of himself to Year 4 students on October 19.

Parents of the alleged victims of this incident have called for the 5421 people currently employed without final- ised working with children checks to be stood down immediately.

However, a spokeswoman for Attorney- General Yvette D’Ath said this could not be done before the election.

“The government is not able to make policy or legislative changes while caretaker conventions are in place during the election campaign,” the spokeswoman said.

“But that doesn’t mean Labor won’t make the system even stronger by closing a loophole that has existed for many years, even under the LNP.

“We’ll introduce the ‘ no card, no start’ requirements.”

The “no card, no start” policy, announced as an election commitment by Education Minister Kate Jones to solve the Blue Card issue, would only be implemented by a reelected Labor government.

The LNP acknowledge there was an issue with the system but Opposition justice spokesman Ian Walker would not say how the LNP would fix the problem.

“It’s too little, too late for Labor to say they will close this loophole now on the eve of an election when they have had three years to do something and didn’t,” Mr Walker said.

“The system needs to be fixed as quickly as possible and every effort should be made to ensure that happens.”

KAP leader and Mount Isa MP Robbie Katter said the system needed to be overhauled.

He suggested having Blue Cards assessed locally would speed up the application and checking process.

“I would argue you need a completely different process in indigenous communities where for instance in the case of Doomadgee – you would have a card that is only approved for that region and provided the applicant has no disqualifying offence, the decision is then given to a local justice group with input from a magistrate and police.”