Forde Inquiry (Qld)
January 3, 2024
|By David McGinniss
The “Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions,” known as the Forde Inquiry after its Chairperson, Leneen Forde, contained a wide-ranging description of “repeated physical, emotional and sexual abuse” of children in the care of the state over many generations, and a “failure to provide for the basic human needs of children” in institutions, including “limited education, little instruction in life skills and an emotional coldness that had a profound effect on their later lives.” (page xii-xiii). It found that “unsafe, improper or unlawful” practices, in “breach… of relevant statutory obligations” occurred in Queensland institutions (p.iii).