Queensland’s child safety system continues to buckle under Labor’s watch, as reports of suspected abuse rose by more than 9,000 cases over the past 12 months.
Shadow Minister for Child Safety Ros Bates said child safety investigators were still struggling with 13,035 investigations not starting on time - up 11 per cent compared to the same time last year.
“More than 6,000 children were found to have been abused in the past 12 months, which is up 3 per cent on the previous year,” Ms Bates said.
“In the past 12 months, around 10,000 cases dragged on for months before they were finalised, a jump of 23 per cent on the previous 12 months.
“There has been a 12 per cent jump in the number of carers who walked away from the system in the last 12 months – we have lost 1,467 carers from the system under Labor’s watch in just the last year.
“More than 400 children were kicked out of the system as teenagers with no planning or support, while there were 161 reports of harm to children while under the care of the Department.”
Ms Bates said these figures proved the child safety system was continuing to deteriorate under a do-nothing Labor government, with cases taking longer and longer to come to a conclusion while children remained vulnerable.
“Labor can try and spin this however they want, but the fact is things have not improved in child safety under their watch, and the situation continues to get worse,” she said.
“More investigations into suspected abuse were not started on time in the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months.
“Most concerning is that we have seen a record number of cases taking longer than two months to finalise, which just shows that Shannon Fentiman is unable to protect Queensland children.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk needs to step in and fix this mess once and for all.”
