Paul Weston: Why the next big steps after a nine-month-old’s death are the most important

A nine-month-old baby is found dead on a Gold Coast beach despite police and residents alerting Child Safety multiple times. Here’s why we need to open a review into this department.

Police at the scene where a Baby body was found on Gold Coast beach - Photo Supplied CH 7

ALMOST two weeks after the body of a baby was found on Surfers Paradise beach, serious questions about the Child Safety response remained unanswered. We need answers now.

A father allegedly dumped his nine-month-old daughter in the Tweed River and her body floated north. During her short life she had resided between toilet blocks on the border and Broadbeach.

Concerned residents since May had told authorities the baby was at risk. Police had intervened and Child Safety was called on numerous occasions — and now silence about a potential tragic system failure.

Surfers Paradice beach where a 9 month old baby was found dead. (AAP image, John Gass)

Community leaders are urging the Government to be more transparent about what DOCS did and did not do. They want an open review.

Staff for the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Child Safety Minister Di Farmer have made it extremely clear both must not comment, citing the Child Protection Act. The Government stands accused of hiding behind the law.

The Bulletin asked what dates did DOCS visit the baby, what help was given to provide suitable accommodation for the family, did resourcing issues prevent them getting support, and was a risk/safety assessment ever undertaken.

Let’s concede the Premier might not be able to answer all questions in detail for court and privacy reasons.

The torn clothes worn by the nine-month-old baby at her home, a toilet in a Broadbeach park.

But Government insiders concede a general answer could have been provided.

The Premier and Minister could have said one of two things – everything that could possibly be done was done to help that baby, or they could admit there were failings by the department and “we will fix them”.

What do we know? On Friday morning, November 16, a Broadbeach worker who was so concerned by the baby crying and an adult screaming, called police. Officers visited after 10am, returned at 6pm and then at 3am Saturday, when the parents were allegedly intoxicated.

Police elevated the seriousness of the case, and were forced to take the family across the border to link up with relatives after DOCS merely noted it as a “child concern inquiry”. By Saturday night the baby was dead.

Tweed Heads tourism business owner Trevor Arbon (centre) and residents are seen at a vigil for a murdered nine-month-old girl. They are at Jack Evans Harbour where the homeless family had camped out. (AAP Image/Jason O'Brien)

The Bulletin recently exposed how the department reunited a pot-smoking, violent mother with her four-year-old indigenous daughter who she had bashed, and detailed the shocking case of young twins hospitalised after their allegedly cannabis-smoking parents were placed on a parental agreement.

GET FULL DIGITAL ACCESS FOR 50C A DAY

The Government says a “robust” two-tiered review process is in place on the baby case – an internal review by DOCS and an external one by the independent Child Death Case Review Panel.

This might take at least nine months. There is every chance very little will be made public and it may simply put blame on a handful of busy staffers.

Red Rose Foundation CEO and domestic violence support advocate Betty Taylor is calling for an “open and transparent” review that can restore public confidence in DOCS.

“We need to look at the systemic failings and not necessarily be looking for people to blame in those systems. Do they have enough staff, enough funding, were there communication failures? Look for those things that need to be improved. We owe it to people into the future,” she says.

We owe it to someone else. We owe it to the baby girl from the past.