In a shocking admission during a Budget Estimates hearing, the Minister for Children failed to explain why the Allan Labor Government had ignored previous recommendations of the Commission for Children and Young People (CCYP) to prevent vulnerable children from dying.
The CCYP conducted 45 child death inquiries in 2023-24 of children who died within 12 months of Child Protection involvement. On 56 occasions in the death inquiries the CCYP identified previous recommendations to government that hadn't been implemented, citing 'persistent failures and poor responses to children at risk'.
The 45 children whose deaths were reviewed had been the subject of, on average, four reports to Child Protection. One child was the subject of 24 reports. In 17 of the child death inquiries, the Child Protection case was still open when the child or young person died. The statistics on the number of reports were similar for the previous year.
The Minister for Children had no answer when asked why she'd failed to fix ongoing, systemic failures to protect vulnerable children. She also didn't know how many of the 65 recommendations from two CCYP inquiries into children going missing from care and their barriers to an education had not been implemented.
The Minister was also asked about the ongoing high numbers of children and young people being victims of child prostitution and sexual abuse whilst living in the State's residential care.
Last year the CCYP revealed that in just one year, 160 incidents were reported involving 85 children in residential care, including some as young as eleven. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing's own data revealed there were 291 incidents reported of abuse of children in out-of-home care between 1 January and 31 March this year.
The Minister could not answer how many of those incidents were sexual abuse and how many children it involved, and the Department is on notice to provide that figure.
With only $3.6m in funding allocated this year, the Minister could not answer why the most egregious failure to keep children in the State's care safe has been so underfunded by the Allan Labor Government.
Vulnerable children were just some of the Victorians abandoned by this year's state budget, with $102 million less in new funding compared to last year's budget. Funding for children in out-of-home care will be cut from $77.3 million to just $0.4 million in new funding allocated per year over 2027-29 - with no new funding allocated for early intervention initiatives from 2027-28.
Budget papers also revealed insufficient investment in Early Help Family Services, with target service numbers in 2025-26 falling short of the services delivered in 2024-25.
Shadow Minister for Child Protection, Roma Britnell, said: "The shockingly high numbers of child deaths and abuse of children whilst in care or known to child protection continues and this budget shows the Allan Labor Government doesn't care," Ms Britnell said.
"A government's greatest obligation is to protect its most vulnerable, yet Labor is not keeping them safe and not funding the protection of these children. It's despicable."
"The Minister for Children should be ashamed of her failure to advocate for vulnerable children and families in this budget. Her failures across the child protection system will continue as a result."
