Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Queensland’s Department of Child Safety has again hit the headlines this week, with more disturbing reports that the service is in crisis. I felt so strongly about the issue, I too spoke out in an article in the Townsville Bulletin last Saturday and called for an investigation into the practices of the department.

From the numerous stories I have since heard from my constituents, I believe the department is using Gestapo type tactics and removing children from their families and foster families without proper cause. Even one of Townsville’s solicitors spoke out in the article. He confirmed that he had begun to see a disturbing pattern of children being removed from their parents and foster carers without adequate investigations. He also went on to say that children are often taken on a Friday and held on a weekend when the parent or carer cannot do anything or talk to anyone. Just how insensitive and unprofessional is that?

However, what disturbs me even more is that, despite these ongoing complaints about the Department of Child Safety not just from the community but also from professionals, Mike Reynolds, the Minister for Child Safety, still denies that his department has a problem. What will it take for him to sit up, take notice and act? Mr Reynolds criticised me for speaking out in the Townsville Bulletin article and claimed he takes all complaints seriously. Is that so, Mr Reynolds? Then why do I have constituents calling my office and saying that you have been of no help and that your office tells them that you are too busy to meet with them in person?

Since the article was printed in the Bulletin I have received numerous calls from Townsville residents with similar stories, and a number of people have called into my office to tell of their experiences with the Department of Child Safety. These people are at the end of their tether, with nowhere to turn. I must say that the people who have contacted my office have shown great courage and strength in being able to talk about their cases. They have come forward in the desperate hope that somehow it will force the Queensland government to launch an investigation into the department.

Several people have been brought to tears in recounting their stories and telling how the department turned their lives upside down and tore their families apart. One constituent told of how she and her husband were called into a police station with Child Safety officers present and told of an allegation against her husband. There and then she was given two options by the department’s officers: she and her two children should leave their house or the husband should leave the house. She was told that the officers would take their children away if she did not choose an option. The woman’s husband left the house.

Just two weeks later the police dropped the case, but the Department of Child Safety did not. In the meantime, the wife continued to try to contact the department for answers—to no avail. On one occasion she rang the Department of Child Safety complaints line and was met not by a person but by an answering machine message that said, ‘We’re all busy; we’ll get back to you in five working days.’ While I am astounded that she got a recorded message when she rang the complaints hotline, I am even more astounded that two weeks later no-one from the department had called her back. She said it was only when she complained to Mike Reynolds’s office that—the same day—she received a phone call from the department. This is not good enough. In the end, the Department of Child Safety closed the case due to insufficient evidence. However, a father was forced to spend six months away from his family.

On talking to a local solicitor and psychologist, I found that this is certainly not an isolated case. Another constituent contacted my office about problems that she encountered with the department while being a foster carer. This woman and her husband have been foster carers for over 15 years. The family was fostering a baby for about four months. The department removed the baby. The woman was told by the department that investigations take a maximum of six weeks. However, it is now more than three months, and still this woman has heard nothing from the department. Again this is not an isolated case.

I believe that the Department of Child Safety not only is taking a heavy-handed approach but also has become uncaring. There are allegations of the department bullying parents and forcing them to engage in lengthy court proceedings when the existence of a risk of harm has not been established. Meanwhile, families are torn apart and children have no contact with their families. This cannot go on any longer. I call on the Townsville based child safety minister, Mike Reynolds, to stop burying his head in the sand and launch an investigation into his department immediately.

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