The child protection system is in crisis with the alarming revelation that more than 200 notifications made in the North West were not assessed.
Shadow Human Services Minister Rebecca White said it’s an enormous failure on the Government’s watch.
“The Minister must immediately explain why more than 200 child protection cases were ignored,” Ms White said.
“When a notification is made to child protection it needs to be assessed as a matter of priority.
“When more than 200 notifications have not been followed up, the consequences for those children could be terrible.
“One notification was left without assessment for more than 300 days.
“A large number of the notifications were for children under three years of age and many were made as unborn baby alerts.
“This is extremely concerning and could prove disastrous for those children.
“Labor has continually been raising concerns with Minister Jacquie Petrusma about the inadequate resourcing of the child protection system.
“We also asked the Minister to explain why fewer investigations were happening when the number of notifications hadn’t dropped.
“On each occasion the Minister has given an assurance that all notifications are assessed.
“The discovery of 200 notifications that have not been assessed shows we were right is raising concerns about the figures because the Minister’s hollow assurance simply does not reveal the truth.”
Rebecca White MP Shadow Human Services Minister
