SNAICC in the News

10 – 17 July 2026

This week, the resignation of Northern Territory Children’s Commissioner Shahleena Musk drew national concern from advocates, as SNAICC called for a stronger, independent Children’s Commissioner.

New data showed more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children accessing early learning, with SNAICC urging governments to do the work to see better developmental outcomes.

Here is a look at where the conversation has been, 10 – 17 July 2026.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this edition links to media coverage that refers to the death of a child in the Northern Territory.

Resignation Draws National Concern as SNAICC Calls for Stronger Oversight

The resignation of Northern Territory Children’s Commissioner Shahleena Musk drew national concern this week, with ABC News reporting her decision to step down over the Territory’s child protection reforms.

Ms Musk, a Larrakia woman, resigned after the Legislative Scrutiny Committee backed the Every Child Matters Bill, citing sidelining her from the reforms and significant concerns about transparency and accountability.

The story received national coverage, including across News Corp mastheads such as the NT News, Herald Sun and The Advertiser, and via Australian Associated Press in titles including The West Australian, First Nations News and Yahoo News Australia.

SNAICC thanked Ms Musk for her work and described her as a fearless and courageous commissioner.

In coverage in ABC News, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle spoke to Olivana Lathouris and described the Northern Territory Government’s response to the resignation as a political distraction from the central issue of child protection:

“You cannot claim to care about the wellbeing of children and ignore the evidence about what actually keeps children safe.”

In the same interview, Ms Liddle called for the next Commissioner to be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person, and for the powers of the office to be strengthened to improve the policy-making process:

“Strengthen the powers of the commissioner so they genuinely have the ability to not only shine a light into where things in the system are failing children, but also to work alongside the government to improve the system.”

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle also spoke to Ros Childs on ABC News Afternoons about Ms Musk’s resignation and why governments must back evidence-based recommendations if they are actually serious about keeping children safe:

“As an independent commissioner, you can’t function if the recommendations that they’re making, if the oversight that they’re seeking isn’t supported by government.”

“Now, you’ve got to be really courageous to be a commissioner. You’ve equally got to be equally courageous as a government to listen to the things that you don’t want to hear.”

“One of those things, and the commissioner’s last report was that 1 in 3 children in child protection were subject to a serious substantiation of harm. That’s a serious substantiation. That’s not, I forgot to take my lunch to school. That was ignored.”

“Now these are the things that we really need to pay attention to. They might be uncomfortable, but they show that we have real problems in ensuring that children within child protection systems are truly safe.”

Strong, independent oversight is essential to protecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and SNAICC is calling for the NT Government to replace Ms Musk’s position with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person given the disproportionate rates of our children in the NT child protection system.

Early Learning Gains Must Translate into Better Outcomes

SNAICC has called on governments to make the investment needed to see better developmental outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in early education, as The Sector and the National Indigenous Times reported on the new Report on Government Services data.

The data shows the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children attending Child Care Subsidy-funded early childhood education and care rose from 3.4 per cent in 2021 to 5.3 per cent in 2025.

That rise reflects the impact of reforms such as the removal of the Activity Test.

In coverage in The Sector, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said it was encouraging to see barriers to participation beginning to come down:

“That’s an important step forward, but it isn’t the full picture. We should be measuring success by whether our children are arriving at school developmentally ready, and we’re simply not seeing that change happen quickly enough.”

Speaking with National Indigenous Times, Ms Liddle pointed to the strength of Aboriginal community-controlled early learning services already delivering what works:

“Aboriginal community-controlled early learning services see strong and ongoing engagement with families because they’re culturally safe, trusted and designed around the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities.”

“These services don’t just provide early learning. They support children’s development, strengthen culture and identity, and connect families with the services they need.”

The developmental gap remains stagnant. The proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children assessed as developmentally on track across all five domains of the Australian Early Development Census is almost 34 per cent.

That figure sits more than 20 percentage points below non-Indigenous children.

In the same coverage in National Indigenous Times, Ms Liddle said governments already had the evidence, and the barrier is investment:

“The missing piece isn’t more evidence, time or a new strategy, it’s investment from government in culturally safe services.”

“The next phase of reform can’t just be about getting more children through the door. It has to be about giving every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child access to the kind of early learning that sets them up to thrive at school and throughout life.”