This week, we’re taking a look at the latest important report from the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, April Lawrie:
Holding on to Our Future, the Final Report of the independent Inquiry into the removal and placement of Aboriginal children in South Australia.
Last Thursday, the Guardian and her team were honoured to join community members and officials from around South Australia at the launch of the report, to hear Commissioner Lawrie speak to the findings of her Inquiry and her hopes for future change. We acknowledge and pay our deep respects to Commissioner Lawrie and her team in undertaking this important inquiry – which has involved extensive consultation and engagement over the past nearly two years with South Australian Aboriginal communities, families and most importantly children and young people.
Tabled in Parliament on 5 June, the report sets out 48 findings and 32 recommendations to reduce the number of Aboriginal children coming into contact with the child protection system and to ensure that Aboriginal children grow up safe and strong within family, community and culture. The report’s six headline findings – which underpin Commissioner Lawrie’s recommendations to the South Australian government – are as follows:
- The Department for Child Protection (DCP) has no defined strategy to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people, or a culturally appropriate accountability and oversight mechanism for monitoring its performance in the application of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.
- There is insufficient funding to meet the identified demand for culturally appropriate, early intervention services for vulnerable Aboriginal children and their families.
- The State is unnecessarily removing disproportionate and growing numbers of Aboriginal children from their families and communities, causing long term harm to their health, wellbeing and life chances, when they could be responding in a more child-family centred and culturally responsive way.
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle has been taken out of the hands of the Aboriginal community. Aboriginal community voices were not included or deemed necessary in the drafting of the Principle in the current legislation and in policy.
- The way decisions are managed and made regarding Aboriginal children’s best interests needs to change. Better outcomes for Aboriginal children are achieved when Aboriginal people, families and communities lead decision-making.
- Systemic racism and cultural bias contribute to the disproportionate rates of Aboriginal child removals and placement into non-Aboriginal care.
Headline recommendations in response to these findings are firmly focused on requiring all levels of government to meaningfully increase efforts to holistically implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, and true to its original intent – accompanied by the transparency and accountability to prove it. This includes through:
- Legislative amendment to embed all five elements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, to the standard of active efforts
- Accompanying evidentiary standards upon DCP in care and protection proceedings
- Youth Court powers to direct DCP take actions to comply with the standard of active efforts
- Requiring the Chief Executive of DCP to report annually on implementation of the Principle
- DCP to develop a dedicated strategy to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children and young people, in partnership with Wakwakurna Kanyini, as the newly established peak body for Aboriginal children and families in South Australia.
“It is important for everyone who works with Aboriginal children, young people and families in South Australia to read this report – and deeply engage with the community stories, voices, pain and hope within its pages.
I truly thank Commissioner Lawrie for undertaking this landmark inquiry. I sincerely hope it is received by government with the openness to listen, the humility to learn, and the commitment to action that is required to achieve real change for Aboriginal children and young people in South Australia.
I look forward to working with the Commissioner and Wakwakurna Kanyini, to achieve the vision set out in this report: Aboriginal children and young people growing up safe and strong, within family, community and culture.”
You can read the report in full and watch the recorded launch event on the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People’s website, at www.cacyp.com.au/inquiry.
