Palmer backing Abetz’s cuts as child safety reforms stall

Tasmania’s Commission of Inquiry Implementation Monitor has delivered a damning warning about child safety reform, raising concerns about chronic underfunding, the impact of $228 million in Liberal Government budget cuts, and the loss of momentum caused by machinery-of-government changes.

Giving evidence, Robert Benjamin KC said he was worried about what the Liberal Government’s cuts will mean for children’s safety.

That should stop Jo Palmer in her tracks. Instead, she is backing in Eric Abetz’s cuts.

His evidence exposes a fundamental contradiction. The Government promises to fix child safety while pursuing cuts that threaten the very reforms it has committed to deliver.

You cannot repair a chronically underfunded system by taking even more money out of it.

Jo Palmer must also take responsibility for the growing delays in implementing the Commission of Inquiry recommendations. Every recommendation exists because children were failed, yet the majority of delayed recommendations sit within her own department, the Department for Education, Children and Young People.

Right now, around one in three children in out-of-home care don’t have a dedicated worker. These are children who have already experienced trauma and instability. They deserve someone who knows them, advocates for them and makes sure they’re safe.

Children cannot afford another year of excuses. The Commission of Inquiry told us what needed to change. Survivors told us why. Jo Palmer’s job is to make it happen, not to sign off on Eric Abetz’s cuts.