Family Matters report launched, as Australia’s under-16’s social media ban kicks in and Catherine discusses the benefits of Supporting our ACCO Early Years Services – SNAICC in the News

SNAICC has released the 2025 Family Matters report which was covered across National news bulletins, from the deadly Torres Strait Islander Media Association, the ABC, the National Indigenous Radio Service and more. Listen here 👉🏾

The tenth edition of the Family Matter report, with the clear message: invest in families, not crisis. The report shows that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids are still being removed from their families at alarming rates.

Access the Family Matters Report here

ABC News reported across TV, radio, and online, with a third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children leaving care without adequate support.

A key finding from the Family Matters report found that only 15.6% of total child protection expenditure was spent on family support services, meaning roughly 16 cents of every $1 is invested in prevention.

“The rest of it goes into removing children, the system has not caught up, and this is something that needs to change” says Catherine Liddle

“The systems that are supposed to keep our children safe are failing to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children stay connected to kin, communities, and culture like they should.”

ABC TV’s news bulletins highlighted the alarming figures in the report and showcased the incredible work of ACCOs like Maari Ma, explaining why investing in families matters.

The report was covered nationwide – from Perth Now to the National Indigenous Times. In Ngambri and Ngunnawal Country, public servants read about it in The Mandarin, while ECEC workers saw coverage in The Sector.

Many of the stories highlighted the report’s findings that while community-controlled organisations are delivering solutions that help close the gap, governments are failing to follow through with the commitments and funding required to ensure this critical work continues.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 9.6 times more likely to be removed from their parents than non-Indigenous children and make up 45 per cent of those in out-of-home care. Only seven per cent were reunified with family, compared with 10 per cent of non-Indigenous children.

On ABC’s NewsRadio Breakfast, Catherine spoke to Thomas Oriti about the release of the Family Matters report. She discussed the large amount of funding that goes into crisis care, rather than investing in what works.

Listen to Catherine’s interview here 👉🏾

“They are a multitude of different programs, they’re designed by communities for communities.”

“What the Family Matters report highlights is that the ACCOs get results… prioritise investment into the Aboriginal Community Controlled sector”

When asked about the lack of progress, Catherine emphasised that the solutions are already there, but governments just need to invest in ACCOs and “need the will to implement at scale”.

Over on the 7am Podcast, Daniel James talked to Catherine about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 9.6 times more likely to put in out of home care, and the damage that the child protection system does to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

“Those child removals create an enormous amount of self-harm”

Earlier in the week, Catherine appeared on ABC News Breakfast discussing the headlines of the day.

Catherine spoke about the social media ban for children under 16 impacting expressions of identity, future opportunities and parents who are trying to navigate how to support their children through the change.

She also talked about the Coroner’s Report findings into the death in custody of Cleveland Dodd, a 16-year-old boy who lost his life in unit 18 of a maximum-security adult prison in WA.

“You often hear me say the word systemic. And this is a classic example of a systemic failure. It’s an exemplar example, actually.”

Unit 18 is a unit within a maximum-security adult prison. The coronial findings found that the unit was inhumane.

“He shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

Watch Catherine on ABC News Breakfast here 👇🏾

Support for ACCO-led Early Years Support is having great results.

But it wasn’t just Family Matters, Catherine also had a yarn with Larissa Behrendt about the deadly work of EYS on her podcast Speaking Out.

And if you’re living in Sydney’s Bayside, Georges River and Sutherland Shire you might have seen SGS News do a story on SNAICC Yarns.

SNAICC Yarns focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-led solutions, and is designed to inform, empower and advocate for systemic change, while promoting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander self-determination and culture.

Episodes highlight the impactful work of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector, offering valuable resources and actionable advocacy to inspire change.