Voicemail blunder exposes dangerous child safety flaws

A GOLD Coast woman has written to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk after hearing a distressing conversation on her phone about authorities failing to take a young child off a “dangerous” mother.

The woman listened to a three-minute recording between Department of Housing staff because one of them failed to hang up correctly after leaving a voicemail message about another issue.

The staff member unwittingly relayed the conditions of a child living within the system and other cases, in which she criticised the Department of Child Safety for failing to take a child off a mother.

“She shouldn’t be taking that baby home to that house, I don’t know why Child Safety hasn’t taken that baby off her,” the officer was recorded saying.

The Gold Coast woman said she contacted the Department of Housing concerned about the welfare of the child but was told to delete the recording.

She then emailed the Department of Child Safety. It replied three weeks later asking for more details.

“I’m pretty p---ed off at the way they spoke,” the woman said. “With the children that have died while known to the department and to hear these women talking about a possible dangerous woman taking a baby home to a property that they knew was bad.

“I think that being a Government department that if the staff felt that the person was dangerous they should let Child Services know. It beggars belief in my opinion.”

In the three-minute audio recording, the Department of Housing staff member can also be heard complaining about a number of clients, labelling them paranoid and dangerous.

“I did say to ---- on Friday, do the pest control and the mowing and charge her for it, but now with all the stuff like holes in the wall and s--t, which we knew the property was s--t, we didn’t know it was this s--t,” the staff member said.

The staff member also said she was not submitting a complaint for another case because she believed the resident was paranoid.

“I am not even going to lodge it as a complaint, it is just ridiculous,” she said.

“Also she is definitely paranoid, but he is just feeding that paranoia for her.”

Mudgeeraba MP Ros Bates said vulnerable kids shouldn’t slip through the cracks because of “bureaucratic buck-passing” between departments.

“Housing department officials should have reported the incident to child safety or police,” Ms Bates said.

“It’s another distressing example of how the system is broken under the Palaszczuk Labor Government. The cycle of tragedies, inquiries, and failures must end.”

A departmental spokeswoman said protecting children and young people at risk was the responsibility of every Queenslander.

“We take that responsibility seriously and the Department of Housing and Public Works engages with Child Safety Services in cases where children are in need of protection,” she said.