Cairns child safety crisis focus of secret whistleblowers forum

Secret meetings in Cairns have heard from foster parents and care home workers coming out of the woodwork to speak up against Queensland’s embattled child safety sector.

SECRET meetings in Cairns have heard from foster parents and care home workers coming out of the woodwork to speak up against Queensland’s embattled child safety sector.

Fear of foster parents having children removed from their care and youth workers losing their jobs meant stakeholders felt a need to share alleged horrific experiences from behind closed doors.

Shadow Child Protection Minister Amanda Camm, in Cairns on Wednesday, said it had been eye-opening to hear testimony from carers who believed the system was failing the very people it was designed to help.

“The stories I’ve been told are graphic, confronting and heartbreaking,” Ms Camm said.

Opposition spokeswoman for Prevention of Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence, Amanda Camm, has spoken about failures within the child safety system. Picture: Shae Beplate

“The failures from within the Child Safety Department and the state government are appalling.”

Dubbed Spotlight meetings the Opposition probe into the Child Safety Department follows explosive accounts detailed by the Cairns Post that revealed crime, prostitution and drug use within Far North resi care homes, kids being shuffled around hotel rooms and traded as a commodities by for-profit residential care home providers.

“(And) what is also deeply disturbing is carers are being threatened to remain quiet,’ she said.

Ms Camm also suspected over representation of children in state care within the juvenile justice system and flagged problems associated with a residential Cairns care system that received $56.7m during the 2021/22.

Foster carers and residential care home workers are speaking out about their concerns.

Given the eye-watering cost to keep kids in care Ms Camm expected better outcomes for our most disadvantaged that often left state care illiterate, with no skills and without driver’s licenses.

Ms Camm accused the government of using strict privacy provisions which prohibit the identification of the children in care to avoid public scrutiny of problems within the sector.

“Labor’s track record on Child Safety is absolutely horrendous,” she said.

Further Spotlight meetings are expected to hear from more workers within the child protection industry following inaugural sessions in Cairns on Wednesday.

Originally published as Cairns child safety crisis focus of secret whistleblowers forum