The Queensland inquiry
into Institutional abuse

Barry Coldry

Issue 356, vol.89, Winter 2000

A complaint about this Centre was again made in 1997 when a concerned youth worker contacted the Commission. He had since been dismissed. Then it emerged that as early as 1989, the Minister for Family Services and Aboriginal Affairs - even then aware of the situation in the Centre - had appointed a committee of inquiry. As the evidence mounted, the government had terminated the committee and shredded its proceedings.

The Forde Inquiry found that incidents of unsafe, improper and illegal treatment of children occurred in both state and private care. This includes neglect - and emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The critical problem running through most Forde Inquiry revelations was the lack of suitable care staff. This was intimately related to the funding issue.

In February 2000, the Premier established an independent body to monitor the implementation of the Inquiry’s recommendations. It is on effectiveness of implementation that this Inquiry - as any other - stands or falls.

Barry M Coldrey has written some twenty books and a number of referred articles, many of them in recent years, around the child migration/abuses in children’s homes issues.