Dangerous trend in lengthy abuse investigations drag on under Labor

• Child abuse investigations taking longer than ever to complete under Palaszczuk Government

• More than 10,000 cases now taking longer than two months to finalise

• Do-nothing Labor Government and Shannon Fentiman have no answers to investigations backlog

Child abuse investigations are now taking longer to be completed under the Palaszczuk Government’s watch, according to child safety performance data.

With less than month to go until the March 2017 data is released, Shadow Child Safety Minister Ros Bates said more than half of all child abuse investigations were now taking longer than two months to finalise since Labor came to office 2 and half years ago.

“The more we look at the December figures released by Shannon Fentiman, it is clear that investigations are dragging on and on more and more putting kids at further risk of harm.” Ms Bates said.

“The disturbing trend needs to be reversed and with a month to go before the next round of child safety data is due to be released the Minister needs to step up and do something.

“Child safety officers are already struggling to get to investigations to begin with and now we find 55 percent or 10,016 of the 18,819 investigations in the year to December, 2016 took more than 2 months to finish.

“It’s not just a matter of throwing new staff at the problem either, it’s about having the right people with the right skills tackling these hard cases.

“We need more than excuses from Labor to help investigators tackle the mounting number of cases taking months to finalise.”

Labor’s embattled Minister has refused to answer questions in parliament earlier this year how many of these open cases took longer than 6 months to close.*

“We have a crisis in our child safety system when it comes to investigations and the Minister can’t be bothered to find out how many cases have been dragging on longer than 6 months,” Ms Bates said.

“How much more evidence does the Minister need for her to finally admit the system is in crisis.

“Not only are children being left in suspected abusive homes waiting for child safety staff to knock on the door, once investigations start they are taking longer to finish and the Minister is clueless.”