Tuesday, 6 February 2024

Questions without notice and ministers statements

Child protection

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:09): (390) My question is to the Minister for Children. Minister, last year you promised to ‘keep our children as safe as possible’, yet the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing’s annual report revealed a steep rise in unallocated child protection cases. When will the minister admit that this is just another broken Labor promise?

The PRESIDENT: I am concerned that might be seeking an opinion. Can I hear just the last bit again?

Georgie CROZIER: When will the minister admit that this is just another broken Labor promise?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:10): I thank the member for her question. No other government has invested more in child protection than this government has – in the most recent budget alone $895 million in additional funds for reforming the child protection system in this state. On any given day there are over 17,000 Victorian children who are involved with child protection, and all children who are involved with child protection are overseen by a case manager, by a team manager. The team manager has the overall responsibility for actively managing and looking out for the safety of every child that comes under the care of their team, and this includes decisions on assigning allocations. A child not necessarily having been allocated to an individual caseworker does not mean that a child is not being actively managed within the child protection system.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our child protection workforce and their union, who look out for them, particularly Karen Batt. Day in, day out, our child protection workers, who are on the front line of some of the most difficult decisions that we make in our community, are making sure that the interests of every child are first and foremost in the minds of those officials working within the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and are making sure that every child is getting the care that is absolutely in their best interests. Those workers do that on the front line day in, day out, and to reduce it to a conversation about an allocation as opposed to ensuring that the best interests of every child are prioritised according to need is really to diminish the work of the child protection system and those child protection workers who are on the front line every day making the decisions to ensure that every child is getting the appropriate services that those children need.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:12): Well, Minister, good try, but there are so many children in this state that you have failed. Minister, as of June last year 16.1 per cent of child protection clients were classified as unallocated – without an active caseworker: a shocking statistic that has led to 322 incidents of abuse having been reported, including 76 allegations of sexual abuse. Minister, why have you failed to keep these children safe from abuse and sexual abuse whilst under your watch?

Lizzie BLANDTHORN (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Children, Minister for Disability) (12:12): I again thank the member for her question. It is debatable whether or not it is a supplementary, because you are now confusing the issue of case allocation with –

Georgie Crozier: On a point of order, President, this is a really important matter that goes to the heart of vulnerable children, the most vulnerable children, being kept safe in this state.

The PRESIDENT: I think you are debating the point of order.

Georgie Crozier: I raise the point because I am talking about the minister’s statement ‘to keep our children as safe as possible’, yet they are being abused.

The PRESIDENT: Order! You just took the opportunity to repeat the question.

Lizzie BLANDTHORN: The point I was trying to make is that the number of children who are specifically allocated to a specific worker as opposed to the overall number of children who are being managed by the child protection system and overseen and actively monitored by the child protection system are two different things, and to then equate that to a conversation about abuse is again to diminish the abuse of these most vulnerable children. But I will not be lectured by those opposite, because at the end of the first quarter of 2023–24, 82.7 per cent of all cases were allocated, yet in 2014, 81.5 per cent of cases were allocated. So if we want to simplify this to allocation rates, our allocation rates are better than when those opposite were in government. That is what the statistics say, but that is not what this is about. (Time expired)