‘Broken’ $1b child safety system sparks inquiry

The Queensland government has announced an inquiry into its $1 billion child safety system which it says is leading to higher rates of youth crime and abuse.

The Queensland government has announced a commission of inquiry into the state’s care system which it says is failing children and leading them to fall into crime, abuse and despair.

The Crisafulli government on Sunday announced a commission of inquiry, to be headed by Paul Anastassiou KC, to examine the state’s “broken” child safety system which it says has ballooned to cost taxpayers over a billion dollars a year.

It cited 2024 census findings that of children entering out of home care, 11 per cent had been sexually abused, 46 per cent had been physically abused and 88 per cent had been neglected.

The government said that children who enter the care system before their tenth birthday have much poorer outcomes including mental health issues, self harm, are more likely to develop a disability and have higher rates of limited intellectual functioning.

Child safety minister Amanda Camm. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass.

The government said that 61 per cent of children in residential care had been expelled or suspended from school.

In Queensland there are more than 12,500 children living in out-of-home care and the government says it will cost $1.12b this financial year to run the system.

It claimed that one teen’s care costs $2.6m a year while another cost $2.3m, putting the blame at the feet of previous Labor governments.

The government says more than 100 of the state’s serious youth offenders were living in out-of-home care.

The commission of inquiry will examine whether the care system is equipped to deal with serious youth offenders and high-risk children, and whether their care has contributed to their offending.

“We often hear of the crime vortex caused by young offenders living in residential care, where they cause others they live with to follow them into criminal behaviours and it is important to investigate and further understand how the system has played a part in that,” child safety minister Amanda Camm said.

“The Crisafulli Government is committed to keeping the community safe and this is a crucial moment in time to make serious generational changes to a system that has been left to languish under Labor.

“In the past decade thousands of children have been let down by the former government who did not care enough to investigate how children in care were becoming entrenched in the youth justice system.”