Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Child protection

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:10): My question is to the Minister for Children. Minister, Labor has been in power for more than 10 years now, and during this time child protection failures have seen Victoria’s most vulnerable children and young people exposed to extreme risk, which includes 2615 at-risk children who were not investigated for over 29 days according to ROGS; premature case closure when the child was still at risk; and a lack of proper oversight with no case worker allocated to them. Due to these and other failures, at least 66 children who were known to child protection authorities have died since 2020. So I ask: will the minister accept responsibility for the thousands of children at real risk of abuse, harm or serious neglect who were left to fend for themselves for a month before an investigation was started?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:11): Can I say at the outset that this question again shows that those opposite (1) do not understand how the ROGS work and how to read them and (2) certainly do not understand how the child protection system works. It is an absolute mischaracterisation –

Members interjecting.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: Sorry, President. I cannot hear myself, so I do not think the chamber can either.

The PRESIDENT: The minister is doing her best to try and answer the question under duress from the people who actually asked the question. So the minister to continue without interjection.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: Thank you, President, and I appreciate your assistance in being heard. Those opposite simply do not understand how to read the ROGS and therefore how to interpret the data. They certainly do not understand how the child protection system actually works. If they did know how to read the ROGS, what they would find is that Victoria leads the nation when it comes to home-based care. Ninety-four per cent of our placements are in home-based care, which is above the national average of 88 per cent. To go to my statement yesterday in relation to the Aboriginal Children’s Forum and the work that is being achieved by that collective of people, Victoria leads again when it comes to placing Aboriginal children with relatives and kin. Eighty per cent of all Victorian children in care are placed in kinship care, which is again well above the national average. All of that is detailed in the ROGS.

I suspect those opposite are referring to table 16A.10 in the ROGS, which also shows that 93.6 per cent of child protection reports have an investigation which is commenced within 28 days of that report, which is again the second-highest nationally for child protection investigations commenced within 28 days, and it is well ahead of the national average of 80 per cent. The table also shows that 66.7 per cent of child protection reports in Victoria have an investigation commenced within seven days, which is the third-highest rate in the country and again well above the national average.

What is clear in the question from those opposite is that they do not understand (1) what this data means (2) how to interpret it or (3) how the child protection system here in Victoria actually works.

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President: Minister, 66 children have died.

The PRESIDENT: It is not an opportunity to repeat the question.

Georgie Crozier: The minister is accusing the opposition of not understanding what the data is suggesting, and she said that it was a mischaracterisation, so I am asking: 66 deaths – is that a mischaracterisation, Minister?

The PRESIDENT: A point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. The minister is being relevant.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: As I was about to go on to say, all reports are allocated to an intake practitioner, and work is undertaken in this phase. Reports do not come in and sit there unattended, as is the implication of your question. All reports are allocated to an intake practitioner, and extensive work is undertaken from the time that report is made to the intake practitioner until the – (Time expired)

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:15): Minister, I note your response and I note that you did not answer the question around accepting responsibility. I will ask: can the minister confirm child protection services will be exempt from any upcoming cuts in this year’s budget?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:15): The Premier has made it very, very clear that frontline services are absolutely critical to the delivery of important services in this state, and child protection workers are absolutely a frontline service. We stand by child protection workers and the work that they do. From the very moment that a report is made to an intake practitioner and they assess the risk of that child, there are eyes on that child – each and every child – by these dedicated child protection workers. They are working to ensure that from the moment a report is made, there are eyes on a child. Those important frontline workers are working day in, day out to protect the most vulnerable children in our community.