 Petrusma fails in her promise to “visit” vulnerable children
 Minister now admits she has known about serious allegations for three months
 Minister’s critical under-resourcing of department sees workers unable to cope
 Premier kept in the dark until allegations were broadcast on Monday
Child Protection Minister Jacquie Petrusma has failed in her important promise to have child protection officers personally visit each of the children still under the care of an organisation at the centre of serious allegations which she has today also admitted she has known about for three months.
Shadow Child Safety Minister Josh Willie said Mrs Petrusma had seriously mislead Tasmanians yesterday when she committed to having officers “visit” each of the 11 children and claimed that she had only learned about the allegations against Safe Pathways– exposed on Four Corners – in October.
“Today Mrs Petrusma has changed her story and admitted that she first learned of very serious concerns about Safe Pathways in August – three months ago,” Mr Willie said.
“Yesterday the Minister said she was so concerned about these 11 children that each would be visited to ensure they were safe – today she told Parliament they had merely been “contacted”.
“And – unbelievably – today the Premier has admitted he was completely unaware of this situation until after the ABC broadcast on Monday night because nobody, including his Minister, bothered to tell him serious allegations had been made about a for-profit organisation which Tasmanian taxpayers are paying $99,000 each week to supposedly care for these children.
“Now that the true picture of this situation has become clear, it’s also clear that Mrs Petrusma has once again badly let down vulnerable, damaged children who she is charged with protecting.
“How can Tasmanians have any confidence in this Minister’s assurances that these children are safe when she has been so hands-off and has failed so badly to thoroughly monitor their well-being?
“How can dedicated and hard-working child protection staff be expected to cope in an area where today there are 17 unfilled vacancies but their workloads keep growing.
“Without having these children visited in person and having their situations thoroughly assessed, how can this Minister give a guarantee – as she has today – that they are safe?”
Josh Willie MLC Shadow Minister for Housing, Disability and Child Safety