Miles Labor Government Failures - Speech to Parliament

The question that Queenslanders will ask themselves this election is: whether children are safer, whether victims of domestic, family and sexual violence are supported and have had justice served, whether women’s economic security is better or worse after nearly a decade of Labor and who has the right plan for Queensland’s future. With nearly 2,000 children in residential care—the worst of any jurisdiction in this nation—the government should be ashamed. 

The residential care review that tasked the department to review itself and did not deal with the issue of children under the age of 12, and recommendations were made that did not address those vulnerable children’s needs. Foster carers are leaving in droves, unsupported by this Labor government. The department is under pressure, where a third of serious harm cases are not being investigated in the timeframe set by this government. Case loads are out of control, and CSOs are blowing the whistle on the failings of this Labor government. This is a frustrated sector which has been ignored. 

Yesterday, the residential care sector was treated with contempt by the child safety minister. It was disgraceful. Three ministers have been appointed to this role in four years yet the system keeps getting worse. 

We also have the failings of the DNA lab, which have left rapists and murderers still walking around. They talk about women’s safety. They talk about access to rape kits. There are more than 420 victims of rape who have been waiting more than 12 months to have their rape kits tested, notwithstanding the backlog. Shandee Blackburn’s death will not be in vain, thanks to the courage of Dr Kirsty Wright. 

Domestic violence calls are going unanswered. DV breaches are skyrocketing by 280 per cent in Cairns. Strangulation prosecutions have not been occurring because of the failures of this government. We have a police service spending up to 70 per cent of their shifts on DV call-outs. This government’s lazy record in delivering for the DV sector was shown in estimates. They have dragged their heels in delivering on the national partnership. 

We have DV refuges with full waitlists. Women are spending over a year in a refuge. The housing crisis and cost-of-living crisis mean that women and children are sleeping in cars under this government’s watch. Child safety numbers are at an all-time high. Domestic violence is at an all-time high. Women have never been more economically insecure than under this Labor government. That is the record of this tired, third-term Labor government. Women are not safer. Children are not safer. Victims of crime deserve justice. Time is up for Labor. Show Labor the door in ’24.