Redlands MP Amanda Stoker has vowed to put victim-survivors first as she makes her first Queensland Parliament address as the state’s new child safety and domestic violence minister.
QUEENSLAND’S new Child Safety and Domestic and Family Violence Minister Amanda Stoker has vowed to “leave no stone unturned” in the fight against domestic abuse, using her first speech to Parliament to promise stronger support for victim-survivors and a reset of the state’s child protection system.
The Oodgeroo MP, who was sworn in on Saturday, said she was honoured to take on one of the Crisafulli Government’s most difficult portfolios.
“The work that is set before me is complex, but as I said on Saturday, I came to Queensland Parliament to do hard things like this,” Ms Stoker told Parliament.
“The Crisafulli Government has not only drawn a clear line in the sand when it comes to child safety, but we have stabilised the number of children in residential care.
“We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to combating domestic and family violence, and I look forward to working with the sectors to improve the lives of victim-survivors right across Queensland.”
Ms Stoker paid tribute to former minister Amanda Camm, who stepped down from the role last week, wishing her a swift recovery.
“It is an honour to be entrusted with this difficult but important work,” Ms Stoker said.
“It is my belief that our state’s most vulnerable kids deserve everything we can do to give them safety and hope.”
In a strongly political address, Ms Stoker said the Government had inherited a child protection system in crisis, with residential care numbers having risen sharply under the former Labor government.
She said the Commission of Inquiry into Queensland’s child safety system had laid bare a system costing more than $1 billion a year and projected to peak at almost 3,000 children in residential care.
Ms Stoker said the Government had committed $200 million in the budget to implement the inquiry’s recommendations, while shifting the focus back towards foster, kinship and family-based care.
She highlighted $1500 support payments for foster and kinship carers to help children take part in sport and other extracurricular activities, as well as a professional foster care pilot for young people with complex disabilities and needs.
The new minister also pointed to plans for Queensland’s first secure care facility and a census of children missing from placements.
“We have recruited more foster carers in two years than Labor did in their entire last term,” she said.
On domestic and family violence, Ms Stoker said frontline funding had risen by 45 per cent under the Crisafulli Government.
She said DVConnect’s call-answer rate was now sitting at about 80 per cent, compared with 41.9 per cent under the former government.
Ms Stoker also pointed to $9 million for intake and assessment services, $120,000 for Beyond DV Hope Hubs, expanded counselling support, and $650,000 over three years for the DV Safe Phone Initiative.
The funding will support the collection, repair and distribution of free mobile phones for victim-survivors.
“For every unanswered call, there is a victim-survivor who may not be getting the support they need,” Ms Stoker said.
“The facts lie in the figures.”
