Territory protection hotline fails to answer thousands of cries for help

Almost a quarter of callers to the Northern Territory’s child protection hotline did not get to report their concerns to anyone.

Of 21,293 calls to the hotline in the first nine months of this year, 4794 were abandoned, and 8996 returned, according to figures revealed in parliament.

Almost a quarter of all callers to the Northern Territory’s child protection hotline in 2018 did not get to report their concerns to anyone, with at least one person waiting on hold for more than four hours before finally hanging up.

Government figures reveal that of those people who did manage to get through, only about 42 per cent received a “call back” about their report. The average wait time was just under six minutes, with many callers transferred to an automated service.

Territory Families Minister Dale Wakefield admitted the hotline was deficient.

“We acknowledge some wait times are unacceptable. That is why reform has already commenced redesigning the intake service,” she said.

“A key priority of the reform is that calls to the child protection hotline will be answered in real time with no delay in service.”

Of 21,293 calls to the hotline in the first nine months of this year, 4794 were abandoned, and 8996 returned, according to figures revealed in parliament.

Territory Families declined to answer questions about what happened to the remaining 7503 calls, which sources suggested had been screened out or ignored.

“We know that the child protection hotline is not currently meeting the needs of our community,” a spokeswoman said.

Deputy Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said the sheer number of calls reinforced the magnitude of the NT’s child ­protection crisis.

“Territorians who pick up the phone to report child abuse often do so in difficult circumstances and with limited opportunity,” Ms Finocchiaro said.

“The opposition has serious concern around the inability for child protection workers to identify cumulative harm. Until the noti­fications against a child can be aggregated and cumulative harm understood, we will continue to see children fall through the cracks.”

The figures come as Children’s Commissioner Colleen Gynne used her annual report to call for changes to overcome privacy concerns and other barriers to information sharing that her investi­gations found were wrongly exposing vulnerable children to unnecessary risk.

“The safety of the child must be the primary consideration for all service providers when making critical decisions regarding children and young people,” Ms Gwynne wrote.

“The current legislative framework … creates confusion and a reluctance by individuals acting on behalf of government or government-funded services to share information, which often prevents timely interventions.