A tense Estimates hearing has revealed more than 6400 child safety cases were left untouched following a major IT failure, while critical domestic violence funding was redirected to other portfolios.

Minister Amanda Camm is under mounting pressure after refusing to disclose how many children have been harmed in state care, as her department also confirmed the peak disability council has sat vacant for an entire year.

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DG DEFENDS SHORT-CHANGING SERVICE

8.55PM: Director-General Belinda Drew defended the funding for counselling services, which is set at $167 an hour despite costing $193 an hour.

Ms Drew said the lower funding allocation would not impact service delivery or the number of counselling hours provided to DFV victim survivors.

“The service being provided currently is provided through contracts which have set levels of service in them, so set levels of output, if you like,” she said.

“We will continue to work with them (services) to negotiate where there might be — and there are underspends across the network of services – the renegotiation of the use of those for where the services are operating at higher cost.

“We will work closely at an individual level with each of those organisations.”

Ms Drew confirmed that the Housing Connectors program had ceased.

“That previous national partnership agreement has concluded, and we are in the process of finalising the new project plan under that agreement,” she said.

“So, as with any pilot program, when funding comes to an end, often those pilot programs do as well.”

But when asked to provide the Housing Connectors report due last year, Ms Drew said she was unable to table that report.

“I don’t believe I can table that report,” she said.

Ms Drew said the department was looking at a “whole range” of shelter work to support DFV victim survivors, including a project with “WorkUp” to enhance equitable access to shelters.

$10.5M IN DV FUNDING REALLOCATED

8.30PM: The state government reallocated $10.5m set aside for core domestic and family violence victim survivor support and counselling services to other areas.

Labor’s prevention of domestic violence spokeswoman Corrine McMillan questioned Director-General Belinda Drew about what the reallocated funds were initially budgeted for.

Ms Drew said they were for general services including support for victim survivors, counselling services and the department’s core programs.

She said it had been reallocated into community services such as financial counselling and emergency relief.

“That money in effect is a reinvestment in those important community services,” Ms Drew said.

“More broadly, the decrease in funding is related to time-limited funding that has ceased … so to have the pieces of project or program work.”

But counselling services, which cost $193 an hour but were funded at $167 an hour, were also short-changed in the 2026-27 budget.

This is despite budget papers noting that providers were experiencing “higher operational costs, including higher workforce expenses and more intensive crisis response services”.

Overall funding for domestic and family violence prevention will fall to $340.7m in 2026–27 – down $38.5m from last year’s allocation and $15.8m below what was actually spent.

Ms Camm has previously said this was due to the expiry of targeted spending, including a $22m saving due to the end of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce.

Ms Drew said the loss of 22 staff over two years was a “natural part” of programs ceasing.

The department spent $1.2m on advertising last financial year.

Earlier, Ms Camm refused to table an update of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce recommendations, despite Premier David Crisafulli indicating one was coming.

Ms Camm, who has previously resisted providing public oversight of the implementation of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce recommendations, was asked by Shadow Treasurer Shannon Fentiman to “table that update now”.

Ms Camm read selective updates from the report and said the single implementation supervisor had been replaced by a reform advisory panel.

She took 10 minutes of an hour-long session, but did not table any update.

“The Premier’s comments were about an update,” Ms Fentiman said.

“He said the minister would give an update tonight … if she’s not able to I’m happy to move on.”

Ms Fentiman welcomed DV victim survivors to the parliament and, referencing Speaker Pat Weir’s warning about a credible threat to disrupt parliament, said she trusted “they were not the threat you referenced earlier”.

Ms Camm says victim survivors had told her they were frightened to seek support because the “current public narrative” and media reporting meant they thought a service would not be there when they needed them.

She said the government had improved services, established new services and ended some pilot programs.

DV VICTIMS MISS OUT ON FUNDING

8.05PM: Amanda Camm has sensationally revealed that funding for domestic and family violence was redirected to other parts of her portfolio, with her Director-General further confirming that not all money went to victims.

“If there was an underspending a certain part of the portfolio, where we can redirect that funding to another part of the portfolio, it is right to do so, and that is under the delegation of the Director-General,” Ms Camm said.

“And I certainly have given that direction to the Director-General that we need to ensure unashamedly that we will fund frontline services, and across my portfolio, majority of those services are outsourced services.”

But Director-General Belinda Drew said she could not guarantee that “every cent” of redirected funding went to DFV victims.

“As the minister has outlined, our close working relationships with neighbourhood centres across the state, where this money is deployed, indicate to us a high level of demand across those services for victim survivors,” she said.

“So I can’t guarantee that every single cent of that money will go to a victim survivor.

“However, we have provided that funding on the basis that we know that need and demand is there.”

NO DEAL FOR THRIVING KIDS

8PM: Queensland is the only state in Australia that has not signed up for the Thriving Kids program to support young children with autism.

The $2bn scheme would see Queensland children with autism and mild developmental conditions move off the NDIS and into a state-led program.

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers in April wrote to Treasurer David Janetzki claiming Queensland could save $580m and urged him to sign off on the deal.

Mr Janetzki rejected the modelling.

“Once we get further down the path and the bilateral is signed, we’ll be able to do further modelling from there,” Director-General Belinda Drew said.

Labor Disability Services spokeswoman Leeanne Enoch thanked Ms Drew for her honesty

Ms Drew also confirmed the department had lost 32 full-time disability support workers.

“The reduction in FTE in that space relates to disability accommodation support services that the department continues to provide,” she said.

“That drop in FTE relates to us undertaking a planned transition away from the delivery of respite services to people with disabilities in Queensland.”

Ms Drew said there was a “slow decline” in disability support accommodation as people with disabilities increasingly chose to use other service providers.

“As that attrition has happened, FTE has naturally dropped,” she said.

DISABILITY COUNCIL VACANT FOR A YEAR

7.30PM: The state government’s Queensland Disability Advisory Council has been vacant for a year.

Labor disability services spokeswoman Leeanne Enoch asked Director-General Belinda Drew when the Queensland Disability Advisory Council last met.

“The QDAC term expired in August 2025 and at this point we are in the process of appointment of new members which is imminent,” Ms Drew said.

The QDAC was established to provide independent advice to the minister.

Ms Enoch noted the government’s claim the “lived experience of people with disabilities are paramount” and questioned how it squared with the vacant council.

“QDAC is a really important mechanism for engagement with people with disabilities across Queensland but it is not the only mechanism,” Ms Drew said.

“QDAC will meet again in the very near future.”

Ms Drew revealed the department had also reallocated a small amount of funding from domestic and family violence to other emergency relief measures in her portfolio.

“Those services funded were not funded into the forward estimates,” she said.

Ms Camm was questioned about the $9.3m operational underspend and reduction by seven full-time staff at a time when more Queenslanders were relying on the support of community organisations like neighbourhood centres.

She said the staff had been reduced because the projects of short term community recovery staff had ended.

Ms Enoch asked Ms Camm to guarantee no child transitioning from the NDIS to state-delivered supports would be left behind.

“Those questions are best directed to the federal Commonwealth disability minister,” she said.

“We are standing up for those with a disability, we are standing up for the original intent of the Commonwealth responsibility in regards to the National Disability Insurance Scheme that was signed up in good faith by states and territories many many years ago,” she said.

She said the engagement with the Commonwealth on the Thriving Kids program had been questionable.

6400 CHILD SAFETY CASES NOT INVESTIGATED

6.40PM: Ms Camm’s department has failed to investigate more than 6400 child safety cases following the catastrophic Unify IT failure which compromised the data of 16,000 vulnerable children in state care.

The astounding revelation by Director-General Belinda Drew during estimates hearings on Thursday night confirmed Child Safety is facing an 8140 case backlog – 78.8 per cent of which have not commenced.

When asked, Ms Drew initially did not know the Unify case backlog, but later confirmed that 6414 child safety cases remained untouched.

Ms Drew earlier revealed that 79 children aged under five remained in residential care homes despite Ms Camm’s direction that they should not be there.

Of those children, five were in residential care because no family-based care option was available.

Another 52 have stayed in resicare to remain living with their siblings.

A total of 20 children were in residential care homes due to medical disability needs.

“And two were living with young mothers and were in care arrangements together,” Ms Drew said.

Shadow Treasurer Shannon Fentiman asked Ms Drew whether it would be difficult for the department to manage the growing number of children who require state care alongside the inquiry recommendations with a smaller budget than what was provided last year.

“One of the real opportunities to reduce cost in residential care, and particularly for highly complex kids, is through the delivery of the professional foster care pilot, and we’ve already had some success in that space,” Ms Drew said.

“ … as we go through the process of planning for implementation of the inquiry’s recommendations, we will continue to provide advice to government about budget.”

Ms Drew, returning to an earlier request about the number of children who have been harmed in care over the last 12 months, was unable to provide the data.

This is because the department is currently not compiling harm reports.

“However, this has been prioritised as the next data set, and work is underway to finalise that,” Ms Drew said.

She said harm data was collected at the “local level,” so she was unable to provide the information.

MINISTER SILENT ON KIDS HARMED IN CARE

6.10PM: Amanda Camm has declined to say how many children in care have been harmed and whether she withheld critical child safety data for several months.

The evening Estimates session with Child Safety Minister Ms Camm opened with her Labor opponent Corrine McMillan noting there were more children in care, more children in protection, and assessment response times had declined.

“This morning you said work starts today,” Ms McMillan said.

“Minister, if work starts today, what have you been doing for the past 636 days?”

Ms Camm, who early Thursday released the government’s response to the landmark Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety, said the government had stabilised the system.

“We are driving down the numbers,” she said.

She said she commissioned the first census and audit into self-placing children.

“They were missing, they were not in their placements and some of these children are the most vulnerable children in Queensland,” she said.

Ms Camm said there was work to do to remove children under five years old from the system, but noted some were in state care with siblings.

“I have tasked the department to go and do some work around that to make sure we are looking after siblings,” she said.

Ms McMillan asked Ms Camm if she had intended to release the corporate data on July 1.

Ms Camm did not directly respond, but said she was regularly briefed on operational data.

“We wanted to make sure we got that data correct,” she said.

“I made a commitment that we would restore corporate data.”

Ms McMillan asked Department of Child Safety Director-General Belinda Drew whether the government had the data as early as May.

Ms Drew said the new metrics and data restoration following the Unify outage required “very very detailed” work.

“It would be accurate to say that I have been progressively briefed about the data,” Ms Drew said.

“It has been my highest priority.”

Ms McMillan also questioned Ms Camm about the total number of children harmed while in care.

“The data she’s actually asked about is held on individual cases and is not data that is published,” she said.

Ms Drew said the data would be published in future data sets and would seek the answer before the end of the session.

The Minister also declined to answer questions on notice regarding Child Safety data.

Ms Camm, prior to estimates, was asked to detail how many children were in both licensed and unlicensed residential care homes, how may foster and kinship carers were currently in Queensland and the number of children aged under five in residential care homes in 2025 and 2026.

Ms Camm also refused to detail how many frontline child safety staff resigned or were dismissed over the past two financial years.

TIGHT SECURITY AFTER CREDIBLE THREAT

EARLIER TODAY: Security at Queensland Parliament has been tightened after Speaker Pat Weir received a credible threat that Estimates hearings would be disrupted.

Mr Weir revealed there could be an attempt to disrupt proceedings from the public gallery and that a member of parliament could be involved.

“I am hopeful that this information will prove to be incorrect or that wiser heads will prevail,” he said.

“However, as a matter of prudence and without overreacting to the information received, I have decided to restrict entry to the floor of the Legislative Council to departmental offices and pass holders.

“The public gallery will remain open, but additional screening and security will be in attendance.”

Mr Weir said disruption of proceedings would not be tolerated.

“The full force of the law will be applied,” he said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Women Minister Fiona Simpson is due to appear at Estimates in parliament’s red chamber this afternoon.

She will be followed by Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm this evening.

In 2022, a group of environmental protesters disrupted Queensland Parliament by hanging a banner over the public gallery.

Lee Coaldrake, wife of former QUT vice-chancellor and prominent Queenslander Peter, was slapped with a $5000 fine.

Her 13 co-accused received good behaviour bonds.