National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-31

Successor Plan Consultation Report

Executive Summary

From late March 2021 until the end of April 2021, SNAICC – National Voice for our Children conducted a series of national consultations to guide the co-design of the successor framework to the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children (the ‘successor plan’) (Department of Social Services (DSS) 2009).

Consultations took various forms, including jurisdictional knowledge circles with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; invited written submissions from key experts, including Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs) and non-Indigenous organisations; as well as surveys open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous peoples with a vested interest in child protection issues that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities.

National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-31 presents the findings from the various consultations in the following order:

1. Knowledge circles results (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders only)
2. Quantitative survey results (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous respondents)
3. Qualitative survey results (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander respondents only)
4. Written submissions summary (submissions received from non-Indigenous parties only)

In relation to the knowledge contributed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the key findings from consultations were that:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples expressed continued frustration at a perceived lack of political will to implement actions to rectify child protection over-representation, such as the recommendations of previous government inquiries, including the Bringing Them Home report (Lavarch 1997), the Royal Commission into the Detention and Protection of Children in the Northern Territory (White & Gooda 2017) and the independent Family is Culture review (Davis 2019).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were highly concerned about a lack of government accountability and transparency across all levels of government around child protection issues, including resourcing and investment. Results indicated that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples believed that governments needed to be held accountable to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for their action and inaction in addressing the rising rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child removals. Data sovereignty and transparency were highlighted as critical by this stage.

There were concerns that the child protection system is too punitive and not supportive enough to effectively support families to keep their children
or have them reunified. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples expressed a lack of trust in both child protection personnel and government more broadly, lamenting that systemic racism and interventions based on Western middle-class normative parenting standards were greatly contributing to the over-representation crisis. Power imbalances between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and governments were reiterated as key concerns.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were concerned about the implementation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle. It was felt that the onus should be on child protection services to prove that they were making all reasonable efforts to implement all elements of the Child Placement Principle. Failure of systems to uphold the Child Placement Principle were reiterated by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as well as the perceived cultural incompetency of child protection professionals.

There were repeated concerns about child protection systems not reflecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural values. Some knowledge holders commented on the historical resonances of contemporary Australian child protection systems with the Native Welfare and Aborigines Protection Boards documented in the Bringing Them Home report (Lavarch 1997). Knowledge holders expressed communities’ concerns that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are too often placed in non-Indigenous care, separating them from their vital cultural and kinship connections without well-defined cause and with no clear plan to reunite children with their families.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples expressed frustration at continually being consulted to provide advice on long-standing issues, lamenting that the same conversations have been had over the past 20 years, with limited action taken despite numerous recommendations from various sources to address child protection issues. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples strongly asserted that governments need to listen and act on the knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in order to address increasing removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people emphasised the importance of this plan realising their right to self-determination; with increased support for community-controlled organisations and applied recognition of the known benefits of strengths-based locally owned cultural practices. Knowledge holders’ experiences have shown that programs designed and overseen by Aboriginal communities and delivered by an empowered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce have the greatest and most affordable benefits for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.

Mirroring input from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders, non-Indigenous respondents also highlighted numerous concerns –including the need for increased prevention and early intervention supports – that extend beyond the realm of child protection services, and the problematic orientation of child protection services that focus too much on immediate fixes and not enough on long-term preventative change. There were also concerns raised about a lack of involvement of children and young people in decision-making processes that impact on their lives. These concerns reflected those highlighted by SNAICC in the Family Matters Report 2020 (Hunter et al. 2020).

Overall, the consultations evidence the urgent need for governments to take action and invest resources accordingly, to demonstrate their political will to significantly reduce the rising numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are involved in child protection and out-of-home care systems. All Australian governments need to act on the solutions previously provided by SNAICC, the Family Matters campaign building blocks, and the recommendations of previous governmental inquiries as a matter of urgency. Nothing short of significant reform – and a demonstration of transparent political will to address the over-representation crisis – will suffice.