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The CDCRC is a multi-disciplinary committee made up of between five and seven members with expertise in fields including child health, forensic pathology, investigations and child protection.
The Acting Commissioner for Children and Young People and Child Guardian chairs the CDCRC.
Current membership of the CDCRC comprises:
Assistant Commissioner, Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian
DipTeaching, BA, BEd, MEdSt, FAIM
Barry began his career as a primary teacher and has over 25 years experience in supporting young people, teachers and administrators in Queensland schools. He has worked in a range of policy and managerial positions with the Queensland Department of Education. Before joining the Commission, Barry was Assistant Director of the Queensland School Curriculum Council, managing the Preschool to Year 10 (P–10) curriculum development program for state, Catholic and independent schools in Queensland.
In 2001, Barry was appointed Executive Director of the Commission, with responsibility for the employment screening, Community Visitors and complaints functions. He was appointed to the new role of Assistant Commissioner, with responsibility for the Commission’s Child Guardian functions, in February 2005.
Barry is committed to the view that strengthening children and young people’s primary relationships will improve their wellbeing.
Professor Stewart is currently the Director of Justice Modelling at Griffith (JMAG) at Griffith University. From 2008 – 2010 she was the Head of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. In 2007-2008, she was the Deputy Dean (Learning and Teaching) in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
After graduating with her PhD from University of Queensland in 1994, Professor Stewart started work in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. The topic of her PhD thesis was An investigation of decision making by child protection workers. Her research now includes: examining the links between child protection, youth justice and the adult criminal justice system; system responses to youth offending and domestic violence; management of risk; diversionary responses; and system modelling.
A focus of Professor Stewart’s work is building the relevant partnerships to strengthen the integration of key research findings into legislative policy and practice development.
Dr Darlington is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Work and Human Services at the University of Queensland. Her professional background is in social work, with extensive experience in the fields of mental health and family dispute resolution. She has practiced in Queensland and Victoria, in both metropolitan and rural locations.
Dr Darlington’s research is predominantly in the area of child and family welfare policy and practice. She has completed major projects on interagency collaboration between child protection and mental health services and on the involvement of parents in child protection decision-making.
Her current projects include an evaluation of early intervention services for children with a physical disability and an evaluation of behaviour support services for children in care.
Charles resides on Thursday Island, in the region of the Torres Strait.
Charles has extensive experience in the government and non-government sectors. He has held various management, project, training and research positions in organisations associated with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Charles is actively involved in matters relating to Torres Strait Islander women and children and has affiliations with a number of organisations that represent these interests including:
Charles has also worked as an Office Manager and Court Support Worker for the Kaziw Asesered Le Association Inc., Thursday Island.
Charles is currently working as an Area Supervisor with the Bureau of Statistics.
Professor Martin is the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Queensland, and Clinical Director, Royal Children’s Hospital Health Service District Child and Youth Mental Health Service.
He is a clinician, researcher, writer and commentator, with 35 years of clinical experience underpinning development of preventive programs in mental illness, and programs for promotion of mental health in families, communities, schools, the defence force cadets and other systems.
Professor Martin has been dedicated to suicide prevention since 1987, and is a member of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the International Association for Suicide Research. He is currently National Advisor on Suicide Prevention to the Australian Government and Director, Centre for Suicide Prevention Studies in Young People at UQ. In 2004, Professor Martin became a Life Member of Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) and in 2008 was awarded the SPA ‘Lifetime Contribution to Suicide Prevention Research’ award. He received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2006.
A major focus of Professor Martin’s work is the area of self-injury in young people. His team has recently completed the largest ever, national survey of self-injury for the Department of Health and Ageing (The Australian National Epidemiological Survey of Self-Injury). Professor Martin is also the Editor in Chief for the online journal AMH (Advances in Mental Health).
Dr Wigg is the Senior Director, Community Child Youth and Family Health Services (Central), Children’s Health Services, Brisbane and Associate Professor, Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Queensland.
Dr Wigg is a graduate of the University of Tasmania Medical School, and undertook his Paediatric training in New Zealand and the USA. He specialised in the care of children and young people with developmental disorders and has practised in that field for 30 years. He has also taken a special interest in child public health, with involvement in state and national child health policy development. He was awarded a Masters of Policy and Administration in 1992 (Flinders University).
Dr Wigg has worked in child health service management since the mid 1980’s in South Australia and Queensland.
For over a decade he was on the national executive of the College of Paediatrics, and then the Division of Paediatrics and Child Health, The Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Dr Wigg is a past-President of the Paediatrics and Child Health Division, Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Currently he serves on the Executive Committee of the International Paediatric Association, and on the Board of the Asia Pacific Paediatric Association. He is the Congress President for the International Congress of Pediatrics to be held in Melbourne in 2013.
Detective Superintendent Cameron Harsley is the Director of Child Safety for the Queensland Police Service. He also manages and leads the Child Safety and Sexual Crime Group in providing statewide, national and international responses to child protection related investigations and is responsible for overviewing all reportable child death investigations conducted by the Queensland Police Service.
Detective Superintendent Cameron Harsley has over 20 years policing experience working predominantly in a variety of operational roles including as a general criminal and specialist child abuse investigator and as a police Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect (SCAN) Team representative. Since January 2006, he has performed a variety of management roles within the Child Safety and Sexual Crime Group and has been heavily involved in the implementation of child protection reforms from a whole-of-government and Queensland Police Service perspective since 2004.
Detective Superintendent Cameron Harsley worked within the Department of Child Safety during the reform (Protecting Children) period and has also worked within the Commission for Children Young People and Child Guardian on projects.
Ms Bligh has worked extensively in policy and community engagement with a particular interest in Indigenous issues. Ms Bligh has held Management, Principal Project Officer and Program Coordinator positions within the Community and Personal Histories section and the Social Development Policy units of the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development.
During her time working in government, Ms Bligh has been responsible for providing high level strategic advice to the Director-General on whole-of-government Indigenous Policy and Government Champion work. This has included: evaluating the department’s reconciliation strategy, implementation of the Office of Fair Tradings’ “Indigenous Fair Go” strategy, and developing and implementing a vision for the Department’s Indigenous Service Delivery.
Ms Bligh has received a number of awards for her work including for outstanding service to the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Development and outstanding achievement in the field of Indigenous reconciliation.
Ms Bligh is currently the Director, Binambi-Barambah Aboriginal Corporation Ltd and President of the Noonga Reconciliation Group.
