Death Of Wesley Thwaites
DEATH OF WESLEY THWAITES
The Hon. ANN SYMONDS: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Community Services. Will the Minister inform the House of any additional details he is able to provide in relation to the tragic death of a three-year-old boy in the central west of New South Wales?
The Hon. R. D. DYER: The death of Wesley Thwaites is a human tragedy of enormous proportions, and one which should never occur in a civilised society. Of course, such tragedies do occur and our goal as a society, and my particular responsibility as Minister, must be to minimise the number of such occurrences. Since coming to office the Government has created 60 new child protection casework specialist positions and is now recruiting 96 additional district officers. The Government has also led the way by establishing the New South Wales child death review team. That team provides advice on how to prevent the deaths of children. It will, of course, examine the sad death of this three-year-old boy. The child death review team enables a collaborative approach to child protection, with all relevant government departments working closely with non-government agencies and relevant individuals to significantly improve its knowledge of the systemic factors that may contribute to child deaths.
In addition, in relation to this matter I have directed that changes be made at the Lithgow Community Services Centre. An assistant manager, care and protection, has been added to the staff allocation at Lithgow. Also, a child protection casework specialist has already been appointed to the Bathurst cluster, with a clear brief to improve casework practices. I profoundly regret that the Department of Community Services made mistakes in relation to this child. Serious errors of judgment were made by officers involved in the case. I do not condone the decisions that were made and can advise the House that three officers who worked on the case no longer work for the department. It was made clear to them that their actions were unsatisfactory. It has been reported that neighbours made additional notifications about the abuse of the boy prior to his death and that they were not followed up. I have requested the department to provide me with information in relation to those alleged notifications.