Reject calls for a Royal Commission into Aboriginal children
Child abuse is a serious crime, which has a devastating impact on children, families and communities.
The safety of children should not be politicised or used as a platform to advance a political position.
It is frustrating and disappointing to hear Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price again repeating the same claims and calling for a Royal Commission with no evidence and no credible solutions.
If any politician—or anyone at all—has any evidence about the sexual abuse of children then they must report it to the authorities.
These calls for a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of Aboriginal children have been made without one shred of real evidence being presented. They play into the basest negative perceptions that some people have of Aboriginal peoples and communities.
Child abuse is far too prevalent in Australia full stop.
The Australian Child Maltreatment Study reveals that the majority of Australians—62 per cent—have experienced at least one type of child abuse or neglect with domestic violence, physical, emotional or sexual abuse the most common.
The evidence and the solutions are very clear.
There have been more than 33 reports on child protection since the Bringing Them Home Report in 1997.
SNAICC – National Voice for our Children produces an annual report Family Matters and has done so for many years that details the evidence-based solutions that will enable our children to grow up safe, loved and protected.
These solutions have been developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations.
The most effective action Government can take to make children safe and to protect their human rights is investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations working to support children and families wherever they live, committing to the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People and to the Closing the Gap priorities and reforms.
We, as a collective, know and have evidence to show that these are the measures that ensure children, women and families are safe and thriving.
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What is a Royal Commission?
A Royal Commission is a government-appointed public inquiry designed to investigate serious issues of national importance.
While a Royal Commission has broad powers to collect evidence, summon witnesses and make recommendations, they do not have the authority to make laws or prosecute cases, meaning their findings rely on governments to take action. In Australia, Royal Commissions have examined serious issues such as Aboriginal deaths in custody, child sexual abuse, aged care quality and the treatment of people with disabilities. Several inquiries have specifically focused on issues affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, yet systemic injustices persist.
Two significant Royal Commission examples include:
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987–1991)
Established in 1987, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody examined the deaths of 88 men and 11 women in custody between January 1980 and May 1989. Its final report included 339 recommendations for state and federal authorities, covering areas such as the investigation and notification of deaths, diversion from police custody, imprisonment as a last resort, and custodial health and safety. In 1992, the Australian Government pledged $400 million, including $65 million for criminal justice reforms, yet many recommendations remain unimplemented. A 2018 Deloitte review found that while 64 per cent of the recommendations had been fully or mostly implemented, 36 per cent were only partially implemented or not at all. Despite these recommendations, Aboriginal incarceration rates have continued to rise, according to the National Deaths in Custody Program—which was established in response to recommendation 41 of the Royal Commission—585 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in custody since the Royal Commission, including four in 2025 alone.
Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory (2016–2017)
The Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory was triggered in 2016 by footage showing boys being tear-gassed and placed in spit hoods at Darwin’s Don Dale Youth Detention Centre. The inquiry resulted in 227 recommendations, all of which the Northern Territory Government initially accepted in principle. Seven years later, in October 2024, the Northern Territory’s Country Liberal Party Government introduced legislation that directly opposed key recommendations, including reinstating spit hoods and lowering the age of criminal responsibility to ten. In 2024, a new youth detention centre was opened in Darwin to replace Don Dale. Despite the Royal Commission’s advice against building such a facility near an adult prison, the new centre sits close to the Darwin Adult Correctional Centre. With a capacity of 44 beds the centre also includes a three-by-two-metre padded room—despite the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommending an end to padded cells for at-risk detainees. Don Dale closed in late 2024, seven years after the Royal Commission first called for its shutdown.
Bringing Them Home Report (1997)
Bringing Them Home is the final report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families, conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (now the Australian Human Rights Commission). Tabled in Parliament on 26 May 1997, the 689-page Bringing Them Home report includes 54 recommendations, informed by oral and written testimony from more than 500 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia. Nearly 28 years later, a new report by the Healing Foundation, Are You Waiting for Us to Die? The Unfinished Business of Bringing Them Home (published on 12 February 2025), reveals that only 6% of the recommendations have been fully implemented. The Healing Foundation report proposes 19 new recommendations as part of a National Healing Package for Stolen Generations survivors that focuses on six key areas: reparations, rehabilitation and research, records, family tracing and reunions, acknowledgements and apologies, education and training, and monitoring and accountability.
Despite the findings and recommendations of Royal Commissions and other inquiries, systemic injustices persist. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have long identified the solutions that work to keep children safe, and reports, such as Family Matters, deliver clear, evidence-based pathways forward—solutions developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations. The most effective way governments can protect the rights and wellbeing of our children is through sustained investment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations, committing to the National Commission for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People and upholding their commitments to Closing the Gap.