In regards to the Safe Pathways program, I want to clearly state – all children that remain in the care of Safe Pathways, are safe.
All of the children in placements with Safe Pathways have been visited by a Child Safety Officer in the past 24-hours.
There is one additional child who is not in a Safe Pathways placement however does have occasional weekend respite with them, who will be visited prior to their next contact with Safe Pathways.
Child Safety Officers have regular contact with children in Out of Home Care placements, as is standard operating procedure.
As I have said, the child featured on the Four Corners program is no longer in the care of Safe Pathways.
It is important to remind Labor, that it was under the former Labor Government that Out of Home Care programs were outsourced to the private sector.
It is the height of hypocrisy for them to now raise concerns about an initiative they first implemented.
Furthermore, it was Labor and the Labor-Green Government that failed to act decisively on the over 600 recommendations from more than 15 reports into the child protection system, including a Parliamentary Inquiry which found that “children are falling through the gaps”.
It has taken the Hodgman Liberal Government to implement the Child Safety Services Strong Families-Safe Kids Implementation Plan which outlines the thirty actions we are implementing for vulnerable children.
Jacquie Petrusma, Minister for Human Services
