WHITSUNDAYS MP Amanda Camm has blasted the former Queensland Labor Government regarding the issue of children living in residential care.
Ms Camm is now the Minister for Child Safety, following the LNP’s win at the recent State Election, and called the former government’s failure to come up with a meaningful solution for vulnerable children ‘disgraceful’.
The comments come after the Crisafulli Government uncovered a predicted half-a-billion dollar 2024-2025 budget blowout in the residential care sector, which the former government knew about and did nothing to stop.
A statement issued by the LNP said:
Last financial year, the former government spent just shy of a billion dollars on residential care, while this year Queensland Labor budgeted just $658 million, a figure that is expected to be surpassed by early March 2025 and blow out to more than a billion dollars.
It currently costs the state about $1,360 per child, per night, to live in a residential care home and, at the end of September, there were 2,093 children in a residential care home.
An analysis of departmental data also revealed Queensland Labor oversaw a decade long increase in the number of the state’s most vulnerable children being put into residential care, including 683 children aged under 12 who were living in these facilities as at 30 September 2024.
That’s a 381 per cent increase on the 142 children aged under 12 and living in residential care homes as at June 30, 2015.
The data revelations come as a recent report from the Queensland Family & Child Commission highlights 721 children under youth justice supervision had experienced out-of-home care, including residential care across the state.
Minister Camm said the former government’s indifference towards coming up with a meaningful solution for vulnerable children was disgraceful.
“Labor have been caught lying to Queenslanders to the tune of half-a-billion dollars, and their shameful lies mean we have inherited a broken system, a system that was without a plan to protect children and our communities,” Minister Camm said.
“The evidence shows Labor’s roadmap for residential care was on a road to nowhere.
“The extreme under budgeting, along with the sheer increase in the number of young people who are now living in residential care, especially those under 12, is a disgrace.
“Labor did not care about Queenslanders’ money, their safety, or doing the right thing by the state’s most vulnerable children.”
Ms Camm said the Crisafulli Government would reform the sector under the ‘Safer Children, Safer Communities’ plan and would respect Queenslanders’ money.
“The decade of disregard for taxpayers’ dollars will continue to run the residential care space further into the ground, but we will stop the senseless spending and reform the sector,” she said.
“I have spent the last five weeks meeting with, and talking to, frontline staff – people who work in the sector and the organisations that have a role to play in reforming the sector.
“The Crisafulli Government is not daunted by the task ahead; we are committed to restoring and significantly strengthening support and parental care in this state.
“We are moving towards a 24-hour, dual carer model for our residential care facilities and we will deliver Queensland’s first SecureCare facility to provide safe care to children who are a danger to themselves and others.
“The Crisafulli Government also plans to pilot a new professional foster care program for children with disability and complex needs currently in residential care.
“We will also increase the allowance for extracurricular activities and education support for children in out-of-home care.”
Minister Camm will host a forum with residential care providers this month to discuss the dual carer model rollout and wider issues in the sector.
