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Queensland children were put at risk by a bungled IT program rollout, minister Amanda Camm said as the “damning” findings of an independent review were made public.
Case management system Unify was launched in April 2025 – two years after initially planned – to replace existing department software, but immediately faced extensive criticism over an array of technical faults.
A government-commissioned Deloitte report into the program and its management was published on Saturday.
It found failures – described as “catastrophic” by the government – came about after timelines were constrained, the scope of elements of the projects were shrunk and some features were not delivered at all. This reduced the productivity of case workers and other professionals attempting to support children.
“There was, without a doubt, an increase in risk,” Amanda Camm, Minister for Child Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, said from Parliament House on Saturday morning.
“There was an increase in risk due to the productivity and the impact on our frontline staff, and that they had to work across four systems because the system that was promised to be delivered to them failed.”
Workers reported data inaccuracies, and said their personal productivity had fallen below the levels they were at while using the old system.
Camm repeatedly said she was kept in the dark by the department, and had not learnt of the system failures until days before she commissioned the report in September 2025.
“I did not know about the descoping of the functionality of this system, nor the history of the system until we read the findings of this report, and they are damning.
“I had a surety, both in the incoming government briefs I received, as well as the briefs along the way to go live from senior staff, that this system had been developed, designed, and was ready to be delivered.”
The minister announced a six-month government plan to fix the $183 million program, with $23.5 million a year budgeted for the restoration.
About 120 staff were brought in to replace the existing governance structure with a new system and independent chair. Operational data will be published within one month and corporate data will be restored within 12 weeks.
“The Crisafulli government is committed to fixing Unify and we have a detailed plan on how the department will fix the system,” Camm said.
“I am committed to overseeing the fix of this system and the changes needed to ensure children are safe and that this does not happen again.”
The Labor opposition was scathing of the government response, and dismissed criticism that the program to replace the software began while it was in government.
“The fact is this system was turned on under the LNP. Amanda Camm can continue to try and shift blame onto everyone else, she is the person who turned this system on,” shadow attorney-general Meaghan Scanlon said.
“Documents show that her director general knew that there were major problems with this botched IT system that the LNP turned on, and the very next day, she met with the minister and we’re expected to believe that she had no idea.”
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