The Hodgman Liberal Government is delivering on another important election commitment, with an independent process to review child death and serious injury to soon be established.
Today, I am pleased to announce that agreement has been reached with the Council of Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity (COPMM) to establish the Child Death and Serious Injury Review Committee (CDSIRC).
The CDSIRC will form as a sub-committee under COPMM, which currently reviews all maternal, paediatric and perinatal deaths in Tasmania.
Until now, Tasmania has been the only Australian jurisdiction without an independent statute-based mechanism for reviewing deaths of children or cases of serious injury where death did not occur.
The previous Labor-Green Government wasted a number of opportunities to improve protection of our children.
In 2006, the Commissioner for Children released a comprehensive report on the subject, recommending the establishment of a new review framework.
Nothing happened.
In 2010 the then Commissioner strongly favoured the establishment of an independent body for monitoring child deaths.
However, that never happened either.
While Tasmania Police, the Coroner and the courts generally all have their respective roles in such cases, it is important that we learn what lessons we can as soon as possible after a child death or serious injury.
This ‘early review response’ to a child’s death has the capacity to identify, at the earliest opportunity, emerging systemic problems for the agencies and service providers involved and produce solutions to safeguard children in the future.
This process will enable reviewers in various departments to work together to share information, sequence reviews as required, consider themes, action specific requirements, and be in a position to respond in a coordinated manner to the review of child deaths.