Meetings on foster concerns

SECRET meetings in Cairns have heard from foster parents and care home workers coming out of the woodwork to speak up against Queensland’s embattled child safety sector.

Fear of foster parents having children removed from their care and youth workers losing their jobs meant stakeholders felt a need to share alleged horrific experiences from behind closed doors.

Opposition child protection spokeswoman Amanda Camm from Cairns on Wednesday said it had been eye-opening to hear testimony from carers who believed the system was failing the very people it was designed to help.

“The stories I’ve been told are graphic, confronting and heartbreaking,” Ms Camm said. “The failures from within the Child Safety Department and the state government are appalling.”

Dubbed Spotlight meetings, the LNP probe into the Child Safety Department follows explosive accounts detailed by the Cairns Post that revealed crime, prostitution and drug use within Far North resi care homes, kids being shuffled around hotel rooms and residential care home providers.