Children under five to be removed from residential care

Aaron Bunch and Laine Clark | June 3, 2026

Children under the age of five will be removed from a state’s residential care following a major inquiry’s “shocking” findings.

The Queensland government has revealed the significant policy change in response to the final report of a landmark inquiry into the state’s “broken” child protection system.

“I have made a policy decision no children under the age of five are to remain in residential care,” Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm told state parliament on Wednesday.

Ms Camm told parliament Queensland had 2258 children in residential care, including 78 under the age of five.

The number of children and young people in state residential care more than tripled in a decade, the Child Safety Commission of Inquiry final report revealed.

Queensland had almost as many children in residential care as every other state and territory combined, it said.

More than two-thirds of child sexual abuse victims were in state residential care when the crimes happened, the inquiry found.

“Our child safety system is meant to protect vulnerable kids, but during a decade of decline, the child safety system was neglected,” Premier David Crisafulli told parliament before the report was tabled on Wednesday.

“The evidence has been shocking, and it’s been deeply concerning.

“Frontline staff didn’t get the support or the resources they need, and vulnerable kids with complex needs and traumatic experiences were not properly cared for.”

The state’s Liberal National government, which was elected in 2024, pinned most of the blame on the former Labor government.

“This report should keep Queenslanders awake at night,” Ms Camm told reporters.

“The findings lay bare the scale of the crisis we inherited, with vulnerable children failed by a system that became increasingly reliant on residential care instead of supporting families and carers.”

The state’s residential care population surged by 229 per cent from March 2015 to March 2025, the commission found.

The annual cost of residential care in Queensland increased from about $300,000 per child in 2019/20 to about $500,000 a child in 2024/25.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington said the report exposed the shocking consequences of a decade of neglect and failure under the former Labor government.

“Queensland’s child safety system was failing the very children it was supposed to protect,” she said.

However, Opposition Leader Steven Miles responded by calling for Ms Camm to be sacked, saying she could not be trusted to lead child safety reforms.

The inquiry – the third of its kind since 2003 – heard harrowing testimony from witnesses who suffered abuse in state care as children over almost 50 hearings in 10 months across the state.

It also chronicled “rapacious” growth in spending, and substantial growth in children in out-of-home care and the residential care sector, and the intersection between the child safety and justice systems.

The number of children in out-of-home care increased from 7999 in 2011/12 to 10,092 in 2023/24, while the number in residential care rose from 653 to 1994 over the same period, the inquiry found.

Spending on child safety services increased from $753 million to $2.36 billion in that time.

Data also showed 72.9 per cent of children under youth justice supervision in 2022/23 had interacted with the child safety system in the preceding 10 years.

The commission made 52 recommendations, which the government said it would carefully consider.

A cabinet subcommittee will consider and implement the report’s recommendations and to prepare the government’s response. 

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