01/09/2026
HOW MANY MORE HEADLINES DO WE NEED?
It feels like every time I open a newspaper lately, there is another story about children, young people and our child protection system.
A 13-year-old boy, Budda Spencer, whose family and multiple agencies were desperately worried about him, died after sleeping in a skip bin — while the coronial inquest now examines what happened in the years, weeks and days before his death.
Young people who have grown up in residential care describing a system that needs fundamental change.
Aboriginal carers warning that history risks repeating itself, while Aboriginal children remain profoundly over-represented in care.
Stories about an overwhelmed system, workforce pressures, residential care, children needing family placements, carers needing greater support and young people asking — again and again — to actually be heard.
And at the same time, there ARE people trying to change things.
There is investment in family-based care.
There are efforts to find families and strengthen kinship options.
There is work happening to redesign residential care with young people at the table.
There are family group conferences keeping children safely connected with family.
There are people inside and outside the system who turn up every single day determined to make it better.
But we cannot allow positive reform to make us comfortable.
Because behind every statistic is a child.
A child wondering where they will sleep tonight.
A child packing another bag.
A child meeting another worker.
A child moving into another house.
A child wondering whether this one will be home.
A child who doesn’t need us to spend another decade discussing what a better system might look like.
They need us to build it.
This Friday, during National Child Protection Week, hundreds of people will come together at our Watch Them Lead breakfast.
There will be 4,902 keys in the room.
Each one representing a child.
Not a case number.
Not a placement.
Not a notification.
Not a statistic.
A child.
And perhaps amongst all these headlines, reports, inquiries, reforms and conversations, there is one question we should keep coming back to:
If this were our child, would what we are offering them be good enough?
If the answer is no, then our work isn’t finished.
Actually, I think it means we are only just getting started.
