Plea for answers on Victorian child deaths

A Victorian MP who began life as a foster child, writes to the Ombudsman, urging her to conduct an inquiry into child protection.

Victorian opposition child protection spokesman Matthew Bach. Picture: Aaron Francis

A Victorian MP who began his life as a foster child has written to the Ombudsman, urging her to conduct an inquiry into child protection following the deaths of 65 children last year who were known to child protection authorities.

Following a series of articles in The Weekend Australian and The Australian detailing a ­government whistleblower’s ­accounts, Victorian Coroners Court data and the findings of a highly classified report by the Commissioner for Children and Young People, opposition child protection spokesman Matthew Bach wrote to Ombudsman Deborah Glass on Tuesday.

Dr Bach — who in The Australian on Wednesday describes his own fortunate experience as a foster baby who was adopted by a loving family — said the circumstances of the 65 deaths were “cause for the utmost concern and require urgent action”.

“For example, it is reported that serious errors were made in individual cases, including the placement of children with entirely unfit carers,” Dr Bach wrote in his letter to the Ombudsman.

“It is also reported that authorities were far too slow to act in ­numerous cases, despite departmental staff being aware that violence and ill-treatment were occurring.”

His intervention came as a leading children’s court lawyer slammed the child protection service’s handling of cases, and called for the establishment of an independent legal unit.

“One of the problems with the department is the fact they don’t have independent legal counsel, so they run matters that they shouldn’t run, and they don’t run matters that they should run,’’ the lawyer said.

In arguing Dr Glass’s ­office is “best placed” to independently ­investigate failures in Victoria’s child protection system, Dr Bach cited the Ombudsman’s investigation last year into complaints about assaults on five children living in child protection residential care units. Dr Bach argued that “anything less” than a full, independent inquiry into the failures in Victoria’s child protection system would be a “further insult to the vulnerable children and families that the government is failing so badly”.

“The last major inquiry into Victoria’s child protection and out-of-home care system was initiated by the Baillieu Coalition government in 2011,” he wrote.

“After years of Labor failures in the years leading up to 2010, the inquiry heard evidence of slow and inadequate responses to the complex needs of vulnerable children and families, and the regular placement of children in dangerous homes.

“In short, it highlighted exactly the same issues as those ­revealed by newly released classified government documents. It’s disgraceful that the Andrews Labor government has learnt nothing. What we discovered over the weekend is only the latest in a string of child protection scandals in Victoria.

“All of this is sickening. It can and it must change. As I know better than most, a well-run system to support vulnerable kids can be the greatest gift. In Victoria we need a full and independent inquiry to find out exactly what’s going so badly wrong, and then fix these problems.”

A spokeswoman for Child Protection Minister Luke Donnellan said an independent inquiry had been conducted by the Commission for Children and Young People “in accordance with their requirements under the legislation”.

The Ombudsman’s office ­declined to comment.