Commission of inquiry into child safety in Queensland will focus on children leaving care
It comes as a powerful commission of inquiry into Queensland's child safety sector held its first public hearing on Wednesday, promising to review the hundreds of children reported missing from placements.
Georgie Djuricic entered the residential care system at seven years old.
She she was placed in an emergency facility with several teenage boys and alleged she was abused over a year and half.
"A boy had severely bashed me to the point where, it had been so dangerous for me to live there anymore, they had to put me in a hotel for two weeks," she said.
"I was moved into another resi immediately because they had too many cases of me having been hurt too much in that house."
The now 19-year-old Aboriginal woman went to four different out-of-home placements over a decade and battled mental health and behavioural issues.
She wants young people's voices to be heard as part of the 18-month inquiry.
Ms Djuricic now works as a Youth Advocate for CREATE Foundation and said the system was broken.
"If you wouldn't treat your children like that, why are you treating us like that?" she said.
"The reality is the system has not really changed in the past 40 years.
"We deserve to be heard, we're the ones that have been hurt."
Queensland's Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety held its first hearing on Wednesday, led by former Federal Court Judge Paul Anastassiou KC.
Reports of almost 800 children "self-placing" will be reviewed as part of the inquiry's broad remit, the commissioner said.
"Self-placing" refers to children leaving a child safety placement for any reason, including to visit family or friends. However, advocates worry children who self-place may also be exposed to unsafe or dangerous situations.
Government figures showed the number of children self-placing had grown to 780 in March 2025 – a figure the state's child safety minister said was unacceptable.
"Allowing one vulnerable child to self-place in Queensland is unacceptable to me, let alone 780 young people," Minister Amanda Camm said in a statement.
"That's why I have ordered a full audit of the kids in care who are self-placing, to understand how the current system can be improved."
Queensland has the most children in residential care in the country, with the state paying more than $1 billion for their care.
In this system, children live in group homes which are staffed by youth workers.
Senior Counsel Assisting Robyn Sweet KC said residential care was designed for children over 12 years old.
She said despite this, one in three children in these homes in Queensland is under 12.
"This is a phenomenon unique to Queensland, with no other state experiencing this explosion of children in residential care," she said.
"There are scores of children under the age of five … There are even reports of infants placed in residential care."
The commissioner said "the paramount aim of this inquiry" was to "improve the lives of and outcomes for these children and young people".
"If that aim is achieved … it will benefit not only these children, but all of the community of Queensland."
He said "the skies" over the department had been "blackened" by a "fog of notices" for information, with the commission legally empowered to compel witnesses and force organisations to produce documents.
The inquiry's broad terms of reference also include reforming the residential care system, reviewing the decline of foster care, child placement breakdowns, the resourcing of workers and "the ministerial accountability of the child safety system".
Following an ABC investigation, the commissioner said the inquiry will prioritise reviewing the complaints system for carers and accelerate submissions on that subject.
Reporting by the ABC in July revealed the violence and chaos inside some residential care homes, with workers saying they feared reprisals for speaking out.
More than 60 submissions by foster carers, former child safety workers, academics and parents of children in care have already been received by the inquiry.
Tom Allsop, chief executive officer of PeakCare, said he hoped the inquiry would bring significant change.
"We know we sit at a moment in time where we can set up a system that Queensland deserves when it comes to supporting children," he said.
"We know we need this inquiry to shine a light on parts of this service system … that aren't operating how we need."
The inquiry will deliver a final report to the Queensland government by November 30, 2026.
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