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Mr
WILL HODGMAN (Franklin - Leader of the
Opposition - Motion) - Mr Speaker, I move –
That
the House take note of the following matter: child
abuse and child protection services in Tasmania.
It is
appropriate that we raise, as a matter of public
importance the issue of child abuse and child
protection in this House. It is appropriate that we
stop to think of those many Tasmanian children
needing protection from abuse. Yes, we will shortly
be debating the appalling handling of the children
of another generation, but we should not lose sight
of the fact that today, before our eyes, we are
seeing another generation suffer abuse and lack of
protection. The system is failing them and this is a
disgrace. Yes, it is a subject of a sensitive
nature, certainly emotive, but quite rightly brought
before this House for the Government to contemplate
when putting in place strategies and policies to
address this most serious social evil.
We have
recently seen the release of reports into this very
subject, and they highlight three critical issues
for this Government: leadership in this issue,
solutions to address the problem, and a fundamental
commitment to the achievement of positive outcomes
to improve what is, in Tasmania, a totally
unacceptable set of circumstances.
Leadership means that the Government must take hold
of the reality of the situation, and take up the
recommendations of the outgoing Commissioner for
Children, Mr David Fanning. It must display the
political will to stand up and say that a
revenue-neutral response to a total collapse of our
child protection system is not good enough. This is
not negotiable; it is not something to debate like
other pet projects; it is not part of a balancing
act with sporting clubs or multimillion dollar
facilities. This is a critical need that must be
matched by an unequivocal commitment to fix the
problem and apply sufficient resources to do so.
It is
not about the blame game, as the Premier suggested
in an attempt to deflect attention. It is the
reality of a 1 000 per cent increase in the
unallocated list of child protection cases. This is
about a government's response to a 196 per cent
increase in child abuse notifications requiring
investigation. It has been inadequate. This is about
the State of Tasmania having a rate of substantiated
child abuse that has increased from 1.1 per 1 000
children in 1998 to 5.8 per 1 000 children in
2004-05.
This is
not a blame game; this is about committing every
financial resource and support available to avert
another child from suffering abuse, or tragically in
some cases even from dying, when it might have been
prevented. We need to balance the rhetoric with an
ironclad commitment. Exactly what did the Premier
mean when he stood up on election night and said he
would look after the children? Will the Minister for
Health and Human Services tell us whether she is
prepared to be judged on the number of child abuse
substantiations we have in two or three years' time?
The priority for this Government is to clearly
implement solutions that effect change and reverse
the trends. How can the recommendations of these
substantive reports be implemented on a revenue-
neutral basis? How can we be confident that the
recommendations contained in these reports will not
be shelved and allowed to gather dust, like so many
reports in the past? There have been 30 different
reports and consultancies into issues relating to
child protection issues since Labor took office.
The
poor administrative practices that have been
uncovered were even remarked upon in the report of
the outgoing Commissioner for Children, Mr Fanning,
with comments, for example, about documents being
partly developed and then abandoned, or documents
staying in draft form for extended periods of time.
Despite all the reports, reviews and knowledge, the
incidence of child abuse in this State has
increased. It goes to show one thing: reports and
recommendations without action, financial commitment
and strategic planning result in equally poor or
even worse outcomes for the victims - children. A
strong commitment to resources, financial backing,
action plans and benchmarks will deliver improved
outcomes for children. How do we know it? Because we
have seen it happen in Queensland. Queensland
increased its child protection budget by 45 per cent
and just a year later there had been an 18 per cent
decrease in the number of notifications, a 24 per
cent reduction in the number of substantiations, and
a 45 per cent reduction in harm in out-of-home care.
There was a 5 per cent reduction in
resubstantiations and a 7 per cent increase in the
number of kinship and foster carers. Queensland
shows that with a sufficient financial investment in
child protection, we can see very obvious, positive
and speedy outcomes.
We
submit strongly that the recommendations of the
report into child protection services must be
adopted as quickly as humanly possible and with the
backing of a sufficient level of support.
[Time expired]
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