Latest news with #PaulAnastassiou
ABC News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
More than 100 serious young repeat offenders living in state care, Queensland government figures show
Queensland's "broken" child safety system has facilitated the growth of hardened young criminals, the state government says. Almost a third of all serious young repeat offenders are living in state care, according to newly released figures. It follows the recent announcement of a 17-month commission of inquiry into child safety, led by former Federal Court judge Paul Anastassiou KC, to probe the failings of the out-of-home care system and recommend necessary reforms. The ABC last week uncovered revelations surrounding sexual exploitation in residential care facilities and occasions where foster parents felt unsupported to help children with complex needs in Queensland. Part of the inquiry will investigate failures of policy, process, and practice that contributed to children in state care committing crimes. Data released today showed more than 100 serious young repeat offenders were living in state care, of the almost 400 serious repeat offenders in Queensland. Additionally, more than 200 children in state care were under strict supervised youth justice orders. Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said the "shocking" and "damning" figures demonstrated the critical need for the inquiry. "Too many kids in the child safety system are falling into the youth justice system and perpetuating that cycle of crime. "Too many kids are ending up in our detention centres while they're in the care of the state. "Too many kids are falling into a life of crime while they're in out-of-home care." The powerful and broad-ranging review will give the commissioner, Mr Anastassiou, the authority to call any witnesses who might assist in forming his recommendations, including former government ministers. Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm would not be drawn on whether political motivations formed any basis for the inquiry. "I want the commissioner to have the full autonomy to go and investigate governance arrangements, to go and investigate procurement practices, to go and investigate delegations, policy, legislation, how things were implemented, who did what, when, what accountability looks like," she said. The opposition yesterday criticised the terms of reference for the inquiry, noting it did not explicitly examine the reasons why more children were entering the state care system. Ms Camm defended the terms today, noting the "enormous powers" it had granted the inquiry to fix the sector. "The scope is both broad but also very detailed as well," she said. "If the commissioner wants to go and look at more broadly — children entering the system, and what are those indicators, and what are those contributing factors — he has the remit under the terms of reference." Prominent Indigenous advocate and Cape York leader Noel Pearson said the state government had "hit the nail on the head" in launching the review. "This is the most important initiative that any Australian government is undertaking in 2025. "Queensland's child protection system has spiralled out of control for more than a decade, causing catastrophic harm to First Nations children and families, as well as to non-Indigenous children in Queensland born into disadvantage." Support service Act for Kids also commended the move to strengthen Queensland's child safety sector. "Any review that can guide individuals, communities and government on improved ways to keep our kids safe should always be advocated for. "Sadly, many stories have emerged of children being harmed in Queensland's out-of-home care system. This is unacceptable and requires urgent action to address."
News.com.au
19-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
‘Broken' $1b child safety system sparks inquiry
The Queensland government has announced a commission of inquiry into the state's care system which it says is failing children and leading them to fall into crime, abuse and despair. The Crisafulli government on Sunday announced a commission of inquiry, to be headed by Paul Anastassiou KC, to examine the state's 'broken' child safety system which it says has ballooned to cost taxpayers over a billion dollars a year. It cited 2024 census findings that of children entering out of home care, 11 per cent had been sexually abused, 46 per cent had been physically abused and 88 per cent had been neglected. The government said that children who enter the care system before their tenth birthday have much poorer outcomes including mental health issues, self harm, are more likely to develop a disability and have higher rates of limited intellectual functioning. The government said that 61 per cent of children in residential care had been expelled or suspended from school. In Queensland there are more than 12,500 children living in out-of-home care and the government says it will cost $1.12b this financial year to run the system. It claimed that one teen's care costs $2.6m a year while another cost $2.3m, putting the blame at the feet of previous Labor governments. The government says more than 100 of the state's serious youth offenders were living in out-of-home care. The commission of inquiry will examine whether the care system is equipped to deal with serious youth offenders and high-risk children, and whether their care has contributed to their offending. 'We often hear of the crime vortex caused by young offenders living in residential care, where they cause others they live with to follow them into criminal behaviours and it is important to investigate and further understand how the system has played a part in that,' child safety minister Amanda Camm said. 'The Crisafulli Government is committed to keeping the community safe and this is a crucial moment in time to make serious generational changes to a system that has been left to languish under Labor. 'In the past decade thousands of children have been let down by the former government who did not care enough to investigate how children in care were becoming entrenched in the youth justice system.'
ABC News
18-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Queensland announces inquiry into 'broken' child safety system that spends $1 billion on residential care
The Queensland government has announced a commission of inquiry into the state's "broken" child safety system that it says is failing children in residential care at cost of $1.12 billion. The 17-month inquiry will be led by former Federal Court judge Paul Anastassiou KC, who was deliberately chosen for his expertise outside the state, the government said on Sunday. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the inquiry was critical to reforming the system for the sake of the community, and the 12,500 children currently in state care. "There is no coincidence that we have a broken child safety system and a youth crime crisis in this state, and we are determined to take action on both," he said. Before taking office last year, the Liberal National Party leader had promised to inject millions of dollars into the child safety system. But in the past six months, Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm said the government had uncovered new information that warranted a full, independent investigation. "This is about a generation of children that I believe through the information that I have uncovered has been failed by a broken child safety system," she said on Sunday. The announcement coincided with the release of the Children in Care Census 2024, which showed that almost a third of children in care had unmet needs to support their mental health. The census also found: Of the children living in care, 6,112 are placed with a kinship carer, or someone related or known to the family; 4,173 live with foster carers; and 2,212 are in residential care. The government says residential care costs have surged in the past decade, from $200 million in 2014/15 to $1.12 billion this financial year. It has laid the blame on the previous Labor government's increasing reliance on the Individual Placement Support (IPS), which it said was intended to be a short-term bridging response. Ms Camm said for-profit companies were receiving tens of millions of state funding to provide substandard residential care services. One company was audited after it was revealed it paid dividends of $5.25 million to three shareholders in the past financial year. "That is a company profiting from vulnerable children. That is a company that has taken advantage of a broken system," Ms Camm said. The minister, who took up her role last October, said she had not yet visited one of the for-profit facilities the government is criticising. "It is my plan in the coming weeks to undertake a visit to a for-profit facility and to let them know that currently, with the information that I have, they are formally on notice," she said. In de-identified case studies released on Sunday, a 13-year-old child named as Harriet was taken into care two days after their birth. Harriet has a number of disorders and attends mainstream school but generally only attends three days a week due to refusal, the government said. Since 2020, more than $4.5 million has been spent on Harriet's care, most of which was through an IPS. The total spent on Harriet's foster care was $35,091. Ms Camm said the previous government had focused on recruiting foster carers but not on retaining them. She said carers did not feel supported or properly resourced to give a loving home for needy children. "We want children in this state to know there is hope," she said. "That children can go on to have a good life, that they don't have to turn to a life of crime, that they won't be forgotten." Shannon Fentiman, shadow treasurer and minister for women, said Labor would work "cooperatively and collaboratively" with the commission of inquiry. However, she said it was "disappointing" the terms of reference don't include examining the reasons why more children are coming into care. "If we want to actually build a sustainable system that keeps kids safe, we have to be looking at the root causes of why kids are being neglected in their homes and why parents are unable to care for them," she said. Ms Fentiman said the previous government had spent millions on recruiting foster carers into the system, but the system had been overwhelmed by the number of children entering care. "No one could have predicted the massive surge of kids coming into care during COVID. That has not dropped off," she said. The Children in Care Census 2024 also found that before entering care: In a statement, Tom Allsop, chief executive officer of PeakCare, welcomed the inquiry and urged the government not to repeat mistakes of the past. "If we're serious about addressing the issues in the child safety system in Queensland, we need to start by taking early intervention and prevention seriously. Central to that is making sure children and their families are supported is during those crucial 0-8 years," he said. Luke Twyford, chief executive of the Queensland Family and Child Commission, said he looked forward to seeing how it would "compel action to deliver on reforms already recommended in the many inquiries, reports and inquests" seen to date. "This review process should be the time for a bold rethink of our approach to child safety, of the promise we make to children when they are removed from their birth parents, and how we use public money to deliver lifelong change to our state's most vulnerable people," he said.
