SNAICC in the News

6–12 June 2026

This week, national scrutiny turned to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle as ABC’s 7.30 featured SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle’s warning at the Northern Territory’s child protection inquiry.

SNAICC also called out the Queensland Commission of Inquiry’s final report, which falls very short, with many recommendations contradicting the volume of expert and lived-experience evidence presented to the Inquiry. SNAICC’s Youth Voice Engagement Report was launched, revealing exactly how young Mob want to use their voice for change.

Here is a look at where the conversation has been, 6–12 June 2026.

National Scrutiny on Child Protection Reforms That Will Make Children Less Safe

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle’s evidence to the NT Legislative Scrutiny Committee inquiry into the Care and Protection of Children Legislation Amendment (Every Child Matters) Bill 2026 was broadcast nationally on ABC’s 7.30, as the program examined the inquiry into the proposed laws and the concerns the changes will create more problems than they solve.

In the inquiry footage broadcast on 7.30, Catherine Liddle said:

“Numbers of children in out-of-home care will explode. There’s significant evidence to demonstrate that this is what will happen.”

The inquiry held public hearings on 4 and 5 June, with ABC News reporting that the vast majority of evidence from Aboriginal organisations and child protection experts opposed the changes, including NT Children’s Commissioner Shahleena Musk, who pointed out that the existing legislation already includes the best interests of the child.

The ABC reported SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle’s testimony, where she said:

“What the principle categorically does not do is prioritise culture over safety. To suggest that it does is ridiculous, misguided and misinformed.”

The Australian also reported on the widespread opposition to the reforms, including concerns that the proposed changes would weaken the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, citing SNAICC’s submission to the inquiry, which stated that the emphasis on permanency reforms:

“relied on Western concepts of attachment that are not appropriate for Aboriginal children and families.”

SNAICC’s submission to the inquiry found that almost three-quarters of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care in the Northern Territory are placed with non-Indigenous carers, evidence the Child Placement Principle is not being actively applied in practice.

The hearings occurred the same week a report by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner revealed almost one-third of children in care in the NT were allegedly harmed in 2024-25.

What children and families need is not another rushed legislative response, but lasting change that addresses the root causes of harm and strengthens families and communities. SNAICC remains ready to work in genuine partnership with the NT Government on reform that keeps children safe and connected.

Critical Steps Needed in Queensland to Address Child Protection

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle has condemned recommendations of Queensland’s Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety final report, as reported by the National Indigenous Times, First Nations News and Crikey Health Media, after the inquiry recommended adoption as a permanency pathway for all children regardless of cultural background and found no evidence of racism in the state’s child protection department or practices.

The inquiry’s own data reveals the scale of Queensland’s crisis. The state’s residential care population has increased by 229 per cent over the past decade, and Queensland now has almost as many children in residential care as every other state and territory combined.

In the National Indigenous Times article, Catherine Liddle responded to the recommendation to expand adoption:

“This flies in the face of everything we know from the experience of Stolen Generations and multiple investigations since the Bringing Them Home report.”

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle also raised concerns about the proposed reforms to adoption. Speaking to TSIMA, she said:

“What’s disappointing is the move towards things like adoption, and again we know historically that when we start moving towards adoption it is Aboriginal children that are the ones removed and disconnected from their families.”

“We know that removal of children from their families causes ongoing life harms. That is really concerning to see as a recommendation.”

The inquiry’s denial of racism continued to draw criticism through the week, as the National Indigenous Times reported. Under the Closing the Gap Agreement, governments have already accepted that this overrepresentation is driven by colonisation, trauma and systemic racism.

Speaking to the National Indigenous Times, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said:

“What does the Commission of Inquiry see as the explanation for the vast and unacceptable overrepresentation of our children in the child protection system? This finding is quite frankly inexplicable.”

The inquiry also mischaracterised the Child Placement Principle, arguing it should be made subordinate to children’s best interests. Connections to family, community, culture and Country are integral to children’s best interests, not separate from them. SNAICC welcomes the inquiry’s support for full implementation of all five elements of the Principle.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Mail reported that the Queensland Government did not renew the contract of Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children Natalie Lewis after six years in the role, and declined to say whether the position will continue to exist. In the Sunday Mail’s coverage, Catherine Liddle said the government should urgently appoint a commissioner:

“To ensure Queensland Aboriginal children, families and organisations have a voice in the system that directly impacts them.”

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle also spoke to the National Indigenous Radio Service about the urgent need to fill the role of Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children, saying:

“Without that voice we have a massive, massive hole. So it is urgent that the government moves on this.”

“It is a massive hole, and a massive toll, at a time when the commissioner’s voice is vital.”

Earlier this year, SNAICC raised the alarm that Queensland had failed to report critical out-of-home care data to national reporting. As NITV reported, the inquiry the government convened found a system in urgent need of change.

Queensland has an opportunity to remake child protection so it provides safety and better outcomes for children and young people. SNAICC stands ready to work in genuine partnership so all Queensland children have a safe and supported future.

Youth Voice Engagement Report Shows Young People Want Real Power

SNAICC has released the Youth Voice Engagement Report, drawing on the insights, opinions and lived experience of over 150 young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and 45 Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) across remote, regional and urban Australia. SNAICC Youth Voice Policy and Engagement Lead Joel Matysek spoke about the report on TSIMA Radio 4MW, with his comments syndicated nationally through the National Indigenous Radio Service to stations including Koorie Radio.

ABC Radio Alice Springs and Darwin reported on the Youth Voice Engagement Report, saying many young people are calling for a larger focus on shared decision-making, and that the report found young people consistently reject government-led advisory models, with local, culturally grounded advisory groups more receptive to their ideas.

The report found young people called for action-focused structures grounded in culture, community leadership and shared decision-making that give them a genuine platform to lead.

The report will directly inform the SNAICC Youth Voice model, which includes a Youth Sub-Committee of up to 16 elected young people representing every jurisdiction, supported by jurisdictional youth networks, ambassador roles and annual national youth gatherings. It is a model unlike any other in the country, developed with young people as a key part of the process from the beginning.

In National Indigenous Radio Service coverage syndicated nationally, Joel Matysek said:

“As we continue to talk with those young people, they were getting really excited about what this thing [Youth Voice] can look like and what this can be, and that’s really cool.”

“At the same time, it’s also a responsibility that myself and SNAICC hold strongly. There is also a responsibility for us to continue to work with these young people to do something meaningful.”

SNAICC’s Youth Voice wants to hear from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth across the country. Listen as Youth Voice sub-committee member Rylie urges young Mob to get involved.

Read the Youth Voice Engagement Report

In NSW, the Child Placement Principle Must Guide the Transition of 103 Children

Our member organisation AbSec, the peak body for Aboriginal children and families in New South Wales, has called for the wellbeing of 103 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people to be the top priority after the NSW Children’s Guardian cancelled the out-of-home care accreditation of Narang Bir-rong Aboriginal Corporation, as the National Indigenous Times reported.

SNAICC supports AbSec’s call.

AbSec has called on the NSW Department of Communities and Justice to transfer case management to local ACCOs wherever possible, in line with the state’s stated commitments to the community-controlled sector, and for every placement decision made during the transition to fully comply with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.

In the National Indigenous Times article, AbSec chief executive John Leha said:

“Every effort must be made to transfer the care and case management of these children and young people to ACCOs in their local area, organisations that understand their communities, their families and their culture. Placing Aboriginal children with non-Aboriginal providers or moving them away from Country is not an acceptable default. This cannot end with our kids falling through the cracks again.”

The decisions made in the coming days and weeks will have lasting consequences for these children’s lives, and they must be made with that gravity in mind.