Premier needs to step in and help struggling Minister protect vulnerable children

 Minister’s track record badly lets down children in care
 Premier must step in and take charge of Child Protection portfolio after new revelations
 Important responsibilities require genuine care and leadership, not mismanagement
Premier Will Hodgman has no option but to step in and take charge of Tasmania’s critical Child Protection area after the latest revelations of unacceptable mismanagement by his Minister Jacquie Petrusma.
Shadow Child Safety Minister Josh Willie said the Premier must show leadership and take charge of Tasmania’s child protection system and ensure the upmost protection is being given to children after new revelations about for-profit care provider Safe Pathways aired on the ABC.
Mr Willie said that Mrs Petrusma had signed off on a $240,000 bill for Safe Pathways to care for a 12-year-old girl but then it allegedly failed to even provide her with accommodation.
He said Minister Petrusma is ultimately responsible.
The latest concerns about the company follow a damning Four Corners report a fortnight ago which exposed the fact that Tasmanian taxpayers are footing a bill of $99,000 each week for Safe Pathways to care for children but, in some cases, had failed to provide them with basic essentials.
“Tasmanians need to be abundantly clear about what has happened in the crucially important child protection area on this Minister’s watch,” Mr Willie said.
“We’ve witnessed an extremely vulnerable youth provided with a tent and forced to sleep at the Hobart Showgrounds in the middle of winter.
“We’ve seen an unacceptable bungle when 151 child protection reports in the north-west were overlooked.
“The details of an alleged incident at the Ashley Detention Centre were kept secret from Tasmanians and still have not seen the light of day.
“Her department remains critically understaffed and is still without the permanent senior leadership she says will steer an overhaul of the child protection system.
“Now we have the Safe Pathways debacle.
“Mrs Petrusma first claimed she only knew about these allegations in October, then admitted she had been informed in August but the latest concerns raised by the ABC occurred in February.
“It’s disingenuous for the Minister to accuse Labor of playing politics -Tasmanians are right to question why the investigation the Minister claims is still underway is taking so long when 11 children are still in the care of this group.
“How many more times will Mrs Petrusma be allowed to get it so wrong before the Premier takes action to ensure the best possible protection is being given to children?
“What will it take for Mr Hodgman to admit that his Minister is clearly struggling with her important responsibilities and that he must step in give her the support she clearly needs.”
Josh Willie MP Shadow Minister for Housing, Disability and Child Safety