Commission of Inquiry into Queensland’s Child Protection System

The Crisafulli Government has today announced a Commission of Inquiry into the Child Safety System.

The Commission of Inquiry will be led by Paul Anastassiou KC, with its broad terms of reference:

• Reforming the Residential Care System: investigate models of care and the factors contributing to the growth and reliance on a billion-dollar residential care sector.

• Repairing a broken system: reviewing the effectiveness of Queensland’s child safety system to keep children safe.

• Safer Children: failures both systemic and policy that have impeded the ability of the Department responsible for the Child Safety portfolio (the Department) to provide support to families and protection to children at risk of harm in Queensland.

• Safer Communities: evaluate the effectiveness of the Department as a corporate parent and whether it is able to meet community expectations around parenting.

• Delivery Failures: prosecute failures of Government and elected Ministers to implement policy to keep Queensland children and the community safe. 

• Legislative Reform: reviewing Queensland legislation about the protection of children, including the Child Protection Act 1999 and Adoption Act 2009. 

Extracted from the Minister’s Statement

Queensland Foster and Kinship Care will provide regular updates as they become available to the carer community about how carers can participate in this historic Inquiry into the whole of Child Protection System.