Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Everyone in this parliament, as all Australians would be, is horrified by the recent reports of unexplained child deaths, particularly in the homes and dwellings known to child protection agencies. All of the work we are doing in health in reducing the deaths of children is, at the same speed, being undone by suspicious deaths, most usually due to ice addicted households. Crystal methamphetamine is a concern for both sides of this parliament, but we have to be unified in coming up with solutions. It is not fundraising dinners, awareness days and wearing ribbons. We have had enough of that. We have had a doubling in unknown or uncertain or unexplained child deaths in Queensland in just one year. We have had 21 deaths in Queensland, of which 15 were unknown, but at the same time we have the appalling falls in the investigation of these cases by child protection workers.

Obviously, there is a tsunami of claims, cases and reports that this beleaguered department needs to address. But I have had enough of hearing about kids stabbed while they sleep. I have had enough of hearing about children lying on the bottom of a pool for 40 minutes before anyone was alerted. I have had enough of hearing about ruptured duodenums and ruptured anuses. All of these stories can only stop if we start doing something completely different.

There must be zero tolerance for sending children home into the arms of ice addicted parents. In Queensland, all five cases where tragedies occurred in ice families happened when they were downgraded from statutory separation to an IPA, meaning: we will attempt all wraparound supports possible and see if this works. That kind of social experimentation is utterly unacceptable. We know about the paranoia, the violence and the agitation that comes with ice. We know that amphetamine users are moving to this pure and more aggressive form. So we need to do something. We need to make sure child protection is absolutely on the ball so that we do not have 79 per cent of cases not investigated within 10 days, as demanded. We need to make sure the kids are not sent home from paediatric units with absolutely no evaluation, with a warning sent to child protection that is simply not picked up. We need to make sure that if you want to take a child with suspicious injuries home, you will pass an ice test before that child leaves our care.

No child is safe in the home of an ice abuser. We can link to CrimTrac and link to Centrelink and make sure that every adult in that household is clear of ice, or we do not release their child. You can stay with your child, but you will stay there until you are clean and clear, because these parents are not spending their money on their kids—covered in nappy rash and excrement. The money, which is public money, is going on drug debts. And that will only end with a unified Labor, Liberal and crossbench approach to cracking down on ice and not leaving children in these parents' care.