Greens demand an immediate response to a damning child protection inquiry

Today in Parliament, Abigail gave notice of a motion condemning the NSW Government’s more than 20-month failure to respond to a critical child protection inquiry that exposed systemic harm to children and domestic violence victim-survivors and called for the overdue response to be tabled immediately.

Abigail said:

I give notice that on the next sitting day I will move:

(1) That this House notes that:

on 7 December 2022, the Committee on Children and Young People handed down its final report on the inquiry into the “Child protection and social services system”, after hearing harrowing evidence from expert advocates, legal professionals and people with lived experience of navigating the broken child protection and family law systems,
the inquiry identified significant and alarming gaps in the cross-jurisdictional child protection and family law systems, in relation to children being placed in the custody of those previously identified as presenting a risk to that child’s safety due to systemic failings in the family law system. The inquiry heard extensively about the experiences of many people who are victim-survivors of domestic violence, continuing to experience insidious systems abuse perpetrated by their abuser in the family court. This systems abuse is permitted and enabled by the failings in our systems,
in accordance with standing order 303A of the Legislative Assembly, the relevant Minister(s) must within six months of a committee report being tabled, report to the House what action, if any, the Government proposes to take in relation to each recommendation of the committee,
it has now been over 26 months since the committee report was tabled, and 20 months since the government response was due to be tabled on 7 June 2023,
on 4 March 2024 in a Budget Estimates hearing, Abigail Boyd MLC questioned the Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington about the overdue government response, who responded:
- “I'm familiar with the report that came from it whilst I was in opposition at the time…We'll revisit that”
on 3 September 2024 in a Budget Estimates hearing, Abigail Boyd MLC once again questioned the Minister for Families and Communities Kate Washington about the overdue government response, who responded:
- “the committee's report landed prior to us coming into government. It fell into this unusual situation where, as a new government, there was no actual legal obligation to respond. In saying that, we are committed to responding and, as I understand it, a response is imminent”, and
it is a firmly established convention that the roles and responsibilities of government fall on the government of the day, and when a new government takes office it henceforth becomes that government’s responsibility to act on relevant matters, including those which are required under standing orders.

(2) That this House expresses its profound concern for the extreme delay in which the NSW Government has failed to table a response to this critical report.

(3) That this House calls on the NSW Government to immediately deliver a government response to the inquiry into the child protection and social services system final report tabled on 7 December 2022, as a matter of priority.

18 February 2025

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Communities across NSW have for too long been at the mercy of privatised power network operators who continue to put profit above people, acting recklessly and cutting corners without regard for community expectations.

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To build our case for bringing electricity back into public ownership, the Greens are calling for a public parliamentary inquiry into all NSW power network operators, their operation and corporate decision-making practices.

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Greens demand an immediate response to a damning child protection inquiry

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