It's about time we got angry, says Crystal Moon.
Removed from her alcoholic and drug-addicted mum to live with her gran at the age of four, Ms Moon has seen the state's child protection system at its ugly, flawed worst.
She's furious that kinship carers, like her grandmother Helen Aldersey, often don't get enough support to cope with the traumatised children in their care.
Her grandma struggled alone to handle her volatile granddaughter, and it is only in recent years that they have healed the rift.
She's furious that kinship carers, like her grandmother Helen Aldersey, often don't get enough support to cope with the traumatised children in their care.
Her grandma struggled alone to handle her volatile granddaughter, and it is only in recent years that they have healed the rift
"She needed to be able to debrief and get skills and understand me in order to help me," says Moon.
She is also angry that changes to child protection laws, which come into force on Tuesday, mean parents will only have 12 months (or 24 in exceptional circumstances), to show they can care for their children or have them placed in permanent care.
For Ms Moon, having a relationship with her troubled mother and the possibility of later reunification, was essential.
These changes will be retrospective, meaning they will affect families with children in out-of-home care. Once permanent care orders have been made parents can seek to have them revoked, but those working in the area say this is rare.
Ms Moon spoke to 200 concerned social workers, lawyers and child advocates who gathered at a forum organised by the Law Institute of Victoria and others on Tuesday to express disquiet over the law changes.
Law Institute of Victoria spokeswoman Fleur Ward, who acts for children in the Family court, said the changes take Victoria back to the days when wards of the state suffered without judicial or independent scrutiny.
Mandatory time frames are draconian and protect the court from acting in the best individual interest of the child, Ms Ward said.
Parents might take two or three years to address problems, but are then able to resume the care of their children, she said.
"The power to remove children permanently is comparable to the power to incarcerate – the responsibility is huge."
The law changes come in response to the damning
Cummins report in 2012, which found it took, on average, over five years for a vulnerable child to be placed on a permanent care order.
The law changes reduce the role of the Children's Court and give greater power to the Department of Health and Human Services and its overstretched child protection workforce.
It is a system already under pressure:
recently The Age revealed almost 3000 Victorian children suspected of being abused or neglected had not been assigned a caseworker by the end of June.
The changes will have a particular impact on Aboriginal families, who are over-represented in out-of-home care, said former Family Court justice Alastair Nicholson.
In 2012-13 aboriginal children were almost 15 times more likely to be in out of home care compared with non-aboriginal children.
Mr Nicholson told the meeting the changes have the potential to create another Stolen Generation, noting the lack of judicial review or court ability to direct the contact children have with families.
The state's newly-appointed Children's Commissioner, will oversee a review of the changes in six months, but advocates say damage could be done to children and their families in that time.
The Department of Human Services says it will not affect the number of children in out-of-home care or lead to an increase in the number of adoptions.
Last week the Minister for Families Jenny Mikakos announced an additional $2 million would be available to help families whose children are at risk of going into out-of-home care, including services like counselling.
"We need to strike a balance in giving families help to stay together, but ensuring children are in the best care possible and not left in a state of uncertainty.
