Grievance Debate

Children in State Care

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:09): Before the Liberal Marshall government came into power, we were promised a revolution in child protection. We were promised there would be really big change. We would have far fewer children in care. In fact, we would see a reduction in the number of children in care. We would see scores more, even hundreds more foster carers come into our system. We would see kinship carers treated better. We would see a reduction in the number of Aboriginal children in state care. Indeed, it was a new era that we were promised and it was a top-line issue for this government. They were talking about it all the time when they were in opposition. Now we barely hear about it. We barely hear what they are doing, and there is a reason for that: they are not doing very much at all.

One thing we were promised was a single minister to look after child protection. Credit where credit is due, that was absolutely delivered: we got one single minister. The problem is she is a dud. She has already had responsibility stripped from her, with the early intervention and prevention work, which is so critical to arrest the number of children who need to go into state care, sent over to another minister in another place, and not a dollar more has been spent on early intervention and prevention.

On top of that, we have seen a tax on foster and kinship carers, with this minister penny-pinching and introducing new policies that reduce the amount of support our foster and kinship carers are given. If we look at the exceptional resources fund, which is meant to assist people to take on additional children to keep sibling groups together, that has been capped now, leaving quite a few people—and I hear from them—without the funds to be able to take on additional children, or struggling to keep the children they have, to whom they have so generously given their time and money, and be able to support them in our community.

We have also seen a slowing in the number of people going through to long-term guardianship. That is our most secure form of family-based care for children, yet we are seeing that drop off under this minister. Shamefully, we are seeing the rate of Aboriginal children in care rise, with the guardian reporting that now 34.9 per cent of children in care are from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. Those who are in care are increasingly not being placed in accordance with the Aboriginal placement principle, which sees them placed with family members, kinship connections or at least another person from the Aboriginal community.

The fact is the minister has broken her promises. The number of children in care is up by a long way. There are now 4,040 children in care, according to the latest figures. That is 457 more since this minister has come to office. Think about that number of 457: that is multiple primary schools of children who are now in the state care system. From what we read in the guardian's report, they are not necessarily even any safer.

Why does it matter that there are more children coming into care? Well, the guardian tells us it does matter. She finds in her report that the pressure that is being placed on this department by having so many more children coming into care is leading to poor results for children. We are seeing that children who are removed from their families into the care of the state 'are still not actually safe', to quote the guardian. She says that this is a 'personal crisis and a betrayal' and that the number of children coming into the system and the shortage of family-based care is resulting in this crisis.

The shortage of family-based care is a critical matter. While the minister says that she has met her target, she simply has not. Fudging the figures and including in those statistics people who are not able to actually take on the care of children is no way to have openness and transparency about what is happening in our child protection system. There are also deficiencies in placement allocation and matching of children, and some children absolutely heartbreakingly have told the guardian that they would prefer staying in youth detention to going back to residential care facilities where they feel that they are unsafe and at risk.

This minister is a minister missing in action. After a bit of a scare last year, she barely bobs her head up now. We barely hear from her, with only three radio appearances or thereabouts this year. What is she doing? Who would know. We need someone to actually fulfil their promises and we need that now.