Inquiry head Luke Twyford criticises former Labor government over delay on child safety reform

New inquiry head Luke Twyford reveals ‘critical question’ he wants answered as he probes the Ashley Paul Griffith case.

Ashley Paul Griffith pleaded guilty to 309 ­charges.

The head of an inquiry investi­gating system failures that let convicted pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith repeatedly abuse girls in daycare centres has lashed Queens­land’s former Labor government for ignoring more than a dozen recommendations from the state’s last child safety review.

Luke Twyford, appointed to lead the Crisafulli government’s promised child protection system review, said he would be probing whether Griffith may have been caught sooner if all 81 recom­mendations from a 2017 review into the state’s working with children checks had been ­implemented.

Griffith was in November sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 27 years, after pleading guilty to 309 ­charges committed in child care centres for almost two decades.

He is appealing his sentence.

The 46-year-old was able to keep his Blue Card to work with children in Queensland despite two reports to police that he had abused girls in two separate Brisbane daycare centres in October 2021 and April 2022.

Queensland police investigated him at the time but he was cleared after they found there was “insufficient evidence” to take ­action.

There is no evidence his electronic devices or home were searched.

Griffith’s Blue Card was suspended only after the Australian Federal Police charged him in August 2022.

A 2017 review, ordered after schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer was murdered by her stepfather in 2015, made 81 recommendation to the state about strengthening working with children checks.

Luke Twyford.

There are still 16 recom­mendations that have not been acted on.

Mr Twyford said legislation, passed last year in the same month Griffith pleaded guilty, included the introduction of a reportable conduct scheme and a child safe standard scheme.

“If that had been implemented earlier, would there have been a different outcome? (That) is a critical question that I want to resolve,” he said.

“It’s absolutely concerning when government receives a report with recommendations that there is not an immediate response, either to accept and outline how they will be imple­mented or to reject them.”

Opposition Leader Steven Miles said clearly there needed to be more reforms.

He called on the Crisafulli government to legislate all outstanding recommen­dations.

“We were constantly updating that system, constantly taking advice about how to make it as good and as strong as it possibly can be,” he said.

Mr Twyford, who is also chair of the state’s Child Death Review Board, said the “first step” of his inquiry would be to compel con­fidential information from the AFP, Queensland Police Service and the education department about Griffith’s case.

“That will enable us to produce a chronology of the offending that has occurred, including the places and the employers where the failing may need to be looked into,” Mr Twyford said.