Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Child protection

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:29): (714) My question is for the Minister for Children. Last year’s commissioner for children and young people’s annual report found that premature case closure, poor information gathering, poor access to services and an undermanned system were contributing to the deaths of vulnerable children. Have these issues in the child protection system been fixed?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:29): Thank you, Ms Lovell, for your question. At the outset can I thank the commissioner for children and young people for the important work that she does and in particular the recommendations of a number of her inquiries and of course as always her annual report.

Thank you, Ms Lovell, for again giving me the opportunity to talk about the important reforms that we are making in the child protection system. This is ongoing work, but as I have said time and again in this place, and which I am pleased to again remind the house, in the last five years we have invested more than $4 billion in reforming the child protection system, as compared to when those opposite were working on the government benches and the Auditor-General found that the system was underfunded and operating beyond its capacity. Since that time, since we took over the situation that the Auditor-General so damningly recorded, we have invested more than $4 billion. As part of that investment, as I was explaining earlier in relation to Ms Crozier’s question, we have sought to ensure that every residential care place, for example, is a therapeutic place. Maybe those opposite do not understand what this means – Dr Bach did. Gee, I miss Dr Bach. Dr Bach was a great partner in this work because he did not play politics with it. He was interested in real outcomes for children. The therapeutic supports in every place in residential care mean that we are wrapping services around 100 per cent of kids in residential care, as compared to when the system was operating beyond its capacity when those opposite were in power.

We have invested $151 million in the family preservation and reunification response program. In family conferencing we are putting families first, making sure that around every child in the system there is a discussion with them, with those who love them and those who work with them about what might be in the best interests of each and every child who is in the child protection system. We are putting $34 million into integrated and intensive family services. We have tripled funding in the family services system since our government came to power, making sure that children in care get the supports that they need. There is $128 million to support and maintain the critical functions in the child protection system. There is support for carers of children in care, including the carer support help desk for foster carers and kinship carers. We have invested $548 million around those therapeutic supports.

In answer to Ms Crozier’s question earlier I was pleased to talk about the investment we are making in disrupting paedophiles who might prey on the vulnerable kids in the child protection system. We have installed right across the board – and I might admit that Ms Wooldridge knew that this was a problem. When those opposite were working in Ms Wooldridge’s team, including Dr Bach himself, the headline was ‘Paedophile gangs preying on vulnerable children in Victoria, says minister’. Well, it was our government that sought to reform this space – (Time expired)

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:32): I take it that the minister has not fixed that. You have had 10 years in government, and every problem in the child protection system belongs to you. The commissioner for young people report that I referred to in my substantive question also found that of 45 child deaths the commissioner reviewed, each child had an average of four reports to child protection and the child was living in a dangerous situation. Have you as minister ordered a review of your department’s procedures so that at-risk children are removed from their dangerous environments earlier?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:33): I thank Ms Lovell again for her question. Can I say in relation to children in the care system that decisions around each and every individual child’s care are made by the care team around them who have the best interests of the child in mind. There are obviously key performance indicators around intakes, reports and how long it is before a child is seen at each of the different stages within the system. I can have the department provide you with a briefing about that works if it is something that you do not understand over there, but at its core the child protection system is working to ensure that the best interest of every child is –

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the minister.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: Thank you, President. I cannot hear myself. At its core the child protection system is working in a way that ensures that each and every child as an individual child has their needs assessed to ensure that the care plan that is put around that child is in that child’s best interests. That will be different for each and every child.