Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Auditor-General

Kinship Care

Ms MAXWELL (Northern Victoria) (17:28): I rise to speak on the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) report Kinship Care of June 2022. This is yet another report that brings attention to the failures of Victoria’s child protection system. This report notes that between 2017 and 2021 the number of children and young people in kinship care grew by 33.2 per cent. The Auditor-General’s report into kinship care has once again shown that the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing cannot ensure it is meeting its obligations to keep children safe on its watch.

The Auditor-General found that the department was failing to properly monitor placements for children and young people in kinship care. The department does not ensure that staff and service providers complete mandatory assessments. They cannot demonstrate whether children are safe because they do not monitor it; they simply leave things to chance. Less than 1 per cent of annual assessments were completed on time, and more than half of assessments at the six-week placement mark were still not completed. What are we saying to these children when our state does not even bother to check on their safety?

The report exposes that community service organisations and Aboriginal community controlled organisations are provided only limited training from the department. Further, the department does not even know if the Aboriginal kinship funding program is even working, because the referral systems are not effective and not monitored. There is no reporting on how many children have been referred to the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, the time lines of the referrals or the outcomes. Kinship Carers Victoria said that none of the failings highlighted by the Auditor-General are a surprise and that the greatest barrier continues to be a lack of resources to implement the Auditor-General’s recommendations. The Auditor-General noted with urgency that kinship carers do not receive the level of financial support necessary to address the needs of children in their care. This propels kinship carers into a cycle of hardship and deters new carers. Kinship Carers Victoria notes that successive governments have been warned by investigative reports, and ministers and the department continue to be warned about this issue and yet have failed to respond.

I did a quick scan in preparing this statement on report and counted 15 reviews and systemic inquiries relating to child protection since 2009. The child protection system is certainly placed under some scrutiny, and this continues, with good reason, because report after report is damning. It seems that we go from bad to worse despite commissioners’ reviews, ombudsman’s investigations, parliamentary inquiries, VAGO reviews and coronial inquests that keep telling us the child protection system is completely failing and the response is half baked. We risk being completely desensitised to the horror that is befalling these children because it is just a roundabout of report after report, with each one painting a more damning picture than the last.

That is why I brought a motion to the Parliament this week calling for an independent monitor to be appointed to oversee child protection and get the system back on the right footing. This happens regularly in local government as a way to support effective governance. Given the government says all the time that nothing is more important than the safety of children, we should be addressing the system’s failures in a holistic and ongoing way and getting child protection back on track.

I really feel for this sector’s workforce. I have absolutely no doubt about their personal commitment and dedication to these children. It is not the workers, it is the system that is the problem. It is no wonder there are high rates of turnover and burnout as the workforce is seemingly forced to cut corners. It literally puts lives at risk.

The recent case in our County Court of a four-year-old boy being left with 60 injuries is a heartbreaking reminder of what can happen when the system is not watching. That poor child will have a lifetime of consequences from the psychological and developmental impacts of this abuse. The judge said that the department placed this boy ‘in harm’s way’. Every week a child in contact with child protection dies. The commissioner continually refers to a pattern in our child protection system of multiple reports being made, followed by case closure, referral to child and family services, followed by no engagement.

The system remains in crisis and children are unwilling victims. It will probably end up requiring a royal commission, which would cost billions of dollars. If this was invested in early intervention with robust and ongoing oversight, I would like to think these children would be a lot safer. They would certainly have a much better chance.