Inquest into the death of Baby Q

0y · Female·unascertained

A nine-month-old First Nations child (Baby Q) was killed by her psychotic father in November 2018. The family, transient and homeless, were known to child protection and police in NSW and Queensland with complex mental health issues. Critical failures included Queensland DCSSDS inadequately assessing an August 2018 notification of parental aggression, DCJ failing to conduct a review safety assessment after receiving information about untreated mental illness and violence, police not consistently reporting to child protection, missed opportunities to escalate to emergency services, delayed processing of reports at the DCJ helpline, and information not being shared effectively between systems. After-hours police in Queensland appropriately contacted specialist child protection units on 16-17 November but lacked resources for emergency accommodation and did not use the afterhours DCSSDS hotline. The family remained disconnected from consistent support. Multiple agencies recognised individual risk factors but failed to synthesise the cumulative picture of danger that should have triggered statutory intervention.