The Queensland government has apologised to two boys with autism who were found severely malnourished, naked and locked in a squalid room after their father died.
The child safety minister, Craig Crawford, said he was “disgusted” to learn about the abuse and neglect experienced by the teenage brothers over two decades, as revealed by the disability royal commission.
“I want to sincerely apologise to Jonathon and Kaleb for what occurred to them over the 20 years,” Crawford said on Tuesday.
“This should never have happened ... We must do better, we can do better, and we will do better.”
A report published by the disability royal commission earlier on Tuesday found the state of Queensland should have done more to prevent the severe neglect and abuse of the teenage brothers, known by the pseudonyms Kaleb and Jonathon.
The two young men were aged 17 and 19 when they were found living in squalid conditions in May 2020, alongside their deceased father.
Between June 2000 and May 2020, there were 30 occasions when concerns about neglect were raised with Queensland authorities, while 19 child protection notifications were received by the state’s Department of Child Safety, Seniors and Disability Services.
The boys were reportedly denied food and water on several occasions and needed haircuts because their hair had such a strong stench of urine that it could not be washed out.
In February 2019, Kaleb was observed eating a dog’s bone by child safety officers, the royal commission heard.
The report made five recommendations including that the government acknowledge and apologise for the pair’s suffering, consider compensating them and expand the child advocate scheme.
Other recommendations include better training from frontline staff, elevating the voices of people with disability in the development and review of child protection practices and policies.
Crawford said the government would consider the recommendations of the royal commission and deliver a response in “due course”.
“We’re going to have to look at this in a very holistic way … to work out all of these things,” he said.
“There’s going to be a lot of work done by a number of my cabinet colleagues and director-generals. Some of that work has already started.”
Chief executive of Inclusion Australia, Catherine McAlpine, said the royal commission had exposed systemic failures in how society treats people with disabilities.
“For people with an intellectual disability, for people with complex support needs, people just look the other way, put them in the too hard basket and say, ‘We’ll worry about it tomorrow’,” she told Guardian Australia.
McAlpine said the only “decent human thing to do” was to apologise and compensate the teenagers.
El Gibbs, the director of policy and advocacy at the Disability Advocacy Network Australia, said the NDIS alone cannot stop violence, abuse and neglect.
“Every other part of our public services, like schools, child protection and health services, have to be part of ending violence against us,” she said.
“All governments, at every level, must end the systemic abuse and neglect of people with disability, and they must do that now.”
The opposition leader, David Crisafulli, said the boys’ story had “rocked the state” and “troubled Queenslanders”.
“Some good must come from this heartache, and that is reform to the system,” he said.
“We have to make sure these failings never happen again and we have to make sure our child safety system is properly resourced, that children don’t continue to fall through the cracks, and we have to make sure that the spotlight is put on it … We have to do better.”
The royal commission’s final report is due to be handed to the federal government on 29 September.
