The Queensland government has announced an independent review into the state's child protection system. It follows last year's sentencing of one of the nation's worst paedophiles, Ashley Paul Griffith, who abused 69 children while working at childcare centres in the state and overseas.
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00:00Today, I can announce we are launching an inquiry into the broken child protection system
00:07in this state.
00:08A system that we have spoken about for a long time, a system that we, if you go back some
00:14of our comments regarding blue cards and the need to ensure that that is a more robust
00:19system and enables people who come into action with our most vulnerable to be fit and proper
00:26people and nothing short of getting to the bottom of the broken system will cut it in
00:32the eyes of Queenslanders and today we take another step in that journey.
00:37This is fulfilling an election commitment we made and in a moment I'll ask the Attorney
00:41to speak a little bit more about it.
00:44It also follows the horrendous breach of trust that was the situation with Ashley Paul Griffith,
00:51a breach of trust that shows how broken the system is and the need to shine a spotlight
00:56to fix it and today is a step in the journey towards fixing that broken system.
01:03The failures in the child protection system go back many years and there have been many
01:07vulnerable children who have had some of the most horrendous things occur because of that
01:12broken system.
01:14But when it comes to the case of Ashley Paul Griffith, that was the one that really sheeted
01:21it home to Queenslanders.
01:25It was the most horrific of crimes.
01:27It highlighted failures in the system.
01:30More of the same isn't going to cut it and we are taking action.
01:33It is essential that when parents drop their kids off at childcare or at school that they
01:39know that they are safe and that is exactly what this review will do and hopefully give
01:45confidence back to the parents of Queensland that there is a government in place that have
01:51their children as number one here in this state.
01:54The terms of reference will assist to allow us to look into the laws and the policies
02:00and the procedures and practices of what went wrong.
02:04What should have happened to enable earlier identification of people putting children
02:10in harm's way.
02:11It will look into early childhood education and to police and the blue card systems that
02:19have operated during the time of Ashley Paul Griffith's offending and what gaps are in
02:25the system and where and how those gaps can be filled.