Child protection
Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (10:11): Shocking new details from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing revealed the crisis facing the state’s most vulnerable children. Victoria’s child protection department has received 66 reports of deaths of children, most of them younger than two years old, who were either inside or known to the system in the past four years. On top of that there have been 5400 reported incidents of abuse over this same period, including physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse. Most shockingly, in a single year there have been 160 reports of 85 children living in residential care who have been victims of child prostitution, including some as young as 11. Statistics like these are enough to make any Victorian feel sick to their stomach. What a damning indictment of the Labor government’s child protection system, where children in its care are still facing abuse, exploitation and even premature death. Is it any wonder that two-thirds of young people in Victoria and across Australia’s youth justice system have had contact with the child protection system within the past 10 years? This includes stories like that of an eight-year-old boy in state care who tried to hold up a supermarket with a butter knife, who had been roaming the streets with teens twice his age, leaving home almost daily to steal and beg for money. If there is one thing that is clear, it is that vulnerable children are being failed under a Labor government in Victoria. The most vulnerable in our state deserve better than this.