Child protection: ‘Voters will judge States’

Senator Ian Gorst said that the report had provided a blueprint for better child protection.

He added that Members should take the opportunity to ‘come together’ to put the recommendations in place and that the final ten months of this political term would be defined by how the States responded to the report.

The Chief Minister said at the end of the two-day in-committee States debate on the findings of the report that proposals on how to implement the recommendations could be formally lodged by October in the form of a ‘Children’s Plan’, with detailed summaries of the costs and the number of people needed to bring the changes.

The inquiry, which sat for 149 days of evidence and heard from more than 200 witnesses, found that the States had been ‘ineffectual and neglectful’ in carrying out its role as ‘substitute parents’ and had failed vulnerable children over a number of decades.

Senator Gorst said: ‘I am not offering something easy but I ask we come together, and together we can make a difference.

‘We as an Assembly should be judged in May 2018 on how we have implemented these recommendations and nothing else.’

– Advertisement –
– Advertisement –