A NSW minister says she is “not going anywhere” amid growing calls for an independent review into why the state government allowed a convicted triple murderer to live in a home with two adopted children.
NSW Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington apologized on 2GB radio on Wednesday morning after confirming that Regina Arthurell had been kicked out of a home on Monday where she was living with children aged 12 and 14. The expulsion occurred after the radio revealed the situation that same day.
Washington, who also learned of the situation after the broadcast, said a department review would examine the “multiple system failures” that allowed Arthurell to continue living in the home. He admitted this was despite a report being submitted to the department about the situation in December.
On Thursday, Washington told Guardian Australia: “I’m not going anywhere.” Asked whether there should be an independent review, he said: “An urgent review of this matter is already underway.
“This situation was totally unacceptable, and it is important that I come forward and apologize for what happened. Vulnerable children in state care should not live with a triple (murderer).”
NSW Department of Communities and Justice Secretary Michael Tidball said on Wednesday of the budget estimates that Washington had asked him to oversee the review, saying he expected most of the work to be done “in the coming days” but did not know when the review would be completed.
“I will do a proper review. I will do it as quickly as I can. I will not compromise the quality of the investigation,” he said.
But the Association of Community Welfare Associations (Acwa), NSW’s peak body for out-of-home care non-governmental organisations, told Guardian Australia it supported an independent review.
“Independent scrutiny can play an important role in identifying what went wrong, ensuring lessons are learned and strengthening safeguards for children. However, reviews are only valuable if their conclusions lead to real action.”
Imogen Edeson, chief executive of the Create Foundation, a national peak body for children and young people in out-of-home care, called for “serious consideration of an independent review by an external authority”.
She said she was “horrified that two children in state care were living in a home with a convicted murderer.”
“As more alarming details emerge, it appears that multiple systems failed to act on reports related to the safety and care of these two young men. All agencies involved, including senior leadership, now have serious questions to answer.”
NSW Greens families and communities spokesperson Sue Higginson MLC also called for an independent review.
“Something went very wrong here,” he told Guardian Australia. “The department should not be investigating itself. I have the utmost respect for Mr. Tidball…but that’s not how accountability works.”
NSW Police confirmed on Wednesday that they were called to the address on February 11, weeks before Arthurell was expelled, after reports of a “domestic-related incident” which police said did not involve Arthurell, who was not present at the time.
New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley has also come under scrutiny for failing to renew an extended supervision order (ESO) implemented after Arthurell’s release in 2020, which expired in December 2024.
In Wednesday’s budget estimates, he blamed Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW), saying a high-risk offender assessment committee chaired by the CSNSW commissioner did not refer Arthurell for further consideration.
A CSNSW spokesperson said high-risk offenders were considered by comprehensive multi-agency committees “including representatives from NSW Police, CSNSW and Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health”.
Arthurell, who is transgender, was convicted of two counts of manslaughter and one count of murder for three murders committed before she transitioned, including manslaughter convictions for stabbing her stepfather to death in 1974 and for the murder of a 19-year-old in a robbery in the Northern Territory in 1981.
While on parole for manslaughter in 1995, she bludgeoned her former partner Venet Raylee Mulhall to death at their Coonabarabran home in central western New South Wales, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison for murder.
At a hearing for his ESO in 2021, a Supreme Court judge said Arthurell was making sincere efforts toward rehabilitation but had a “prone to violently ending the lives of other human beings.”
Asked on Thursday whether he would ask Washington to resign, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said: “No, I won’t.
“It’s one of the government’s toughest jobs: finding safe homes for vulnerable children.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the New South Wales Children’s Guardian’s Office, which independently monitors the childcare industry for the government, said it “will participate in any government response or investigation into the reported situation, as appropriate.”
