The Tasmanian government says it committed to a huge and expensive program of change to make children safer. It's revealed its timeline for changes promised after the commission of inquiry into child sexual abuse in government institutions with all to be in place by 2029. But there are calls for some of the recommendations to be fast-tracked.
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00:00 Katrina Munting wasn't kept safe when she was a student in Tasmania's education system.
00:08 She hopes the Commission of Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse will make state government institutions
00:13 safer.
00:14 "Keeping children safe starts at the child, starts with the people surrounding the children."
00:22 The Tasmanian Government has promised to implement all of the Commission's 191 recommendations.
00:28 Today it revealed when it will do that.
00:30 "We want Tasmania to be a place where children and young people thrive in an environment
00:38 that is safe."
00:39 By next July it will make health system leaders accountable for improving the culture around
00:44 child safety, establish an advisory council of children and young people and continue
00:50 to support known and as yet unknown victims of pedophile nurse James Jeffrey Griffin.
00:56 In the education system the government says by July 2026 it will introduce mandatory child
01:02 sexual abuse prevention lessons, make it easier for the teacher registration board to access
01:07 information from other agencies and make it easier for the board to immediately suspend
01:13 teachers registration if concerns arise.
01:16 In the out-of-home care sector by July 2026 it will outsource all foster care and group
01:23 homes to the non-government sector, give children more say in their own placements, introduce
01:29 maximum caseloads for child safety workers and ensure all children have their own case
01:34 worker.
01:35 There are two timelines for youth justice.
01:38 By July 2026 the Ashley Youth Detention Centre will be closed, it will open a new facility
01:44 at Ponteville and it will outlaw the use of isolation as punishment.
01:49 Then by July 2029 the government will raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 and
01:56 raise the minimum age of detention to 16.
01:59 Advocates for current and former youth detainees are unhappy at the timing of some of the recommendations.
02:06 We're talking about the most vulnerable kids in Tasmania and they're the ones who are going
02:11 to have the changes, the improvements that have been promised delayed for three years
02:16 beyond what the commission recommended.
02:19 Next year the government will introduce legislation to appoint an independent child sexual abuse
02:24 reform monitor.
02:26 It will be their job to hold the government to account over how and when it implements
02:30 the commission's recommendations.
02:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]