By Luke Geary, Partner, and Erin Hill, Associate

The Queensland State Government announced early this year that it required Child Safety Commission of Inquiry Commissioner the Honourable Paul Anastassiou KC to provide his final report by 22 May 2026 – accelerating the initial deadline of 30 November 2026 by six months – to allow the Government to announce urgent reform to the child safety system in the forthcoming State budget.

Following from our initial overview of the first three weeks of the Commission (available here), there has been six further weeks of hearings featuring evidence relating to the Child Safety system in Far North Queensland, the child protection litigation model and the youth justice and corporate parenting relationship.

We saw evidence from various child safety related Government Department witnesses identify key issues which encouraged pointed lines of inquiry from the Commissioner. From the perspective of organisations and their insurers, the key implications we may see flowing from what are expected to be the Commissioner’s recommendations for substantial reform  include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Changes to the delegation of decision-making authority for decisions relating to the day-to-day care of a child who is subject to a child protection order and the resulting risk exposure.
2. Legislative reform placing higher burdens on child safety organisations increasing risk exposure for unlawful decisions and statutory breaches.
3. The inefficiencies and systemic failures identified within the child protection litigation model may attract more complaint and civil liability claims. Any reform may require increased Court oversight which would also increase exposure to higher costs.
4. A higher standard for culturally safe practices which could mean consequential exposure to discrimination and / or human rights complaints.
5. The potential higher burden on frontline staff in:
   1. overseeing the day-to-day care of children in out of home care;
   2. ensuring a higher standard of record keeping; and
   3. obtaining evidence to a standard required to defend complaints and / or civil liability claims.
6. An increased risk of frontline staff being exposed to psychosocial harm flowing from the intensification of responsibility / onus in ensuring compliance with higher statutory standards / obligations.

For service providers and their insurers, they can rest assured that hearings will cease by 27 February 2026. There is now very limited time for organisations to make submissions to the Commission in anticipation of what we expect will be a very comprehensive list of recommendations from the Commissioner. The Government’s response to those recommendations will be clear from soon to come budget details.