SNAICC in the News

19–26 June 2026

Eight weeks after the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, communities in the Northern Territory have called for properly resourced services, as the Government pressed ahead with legislation that would weaken the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.  

In Queensland, the Commission of Inquiry’s final report continued to draw criticism for recommending adoption regardless of cultural background and finding no evidence of racism, despite the deep over-representation of our children in care. 

We also celebrated Marlee Silva as the 2026 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day Ambassador, with the theme Living Our Truth, and shared a new early childhood resource, the Bushland Animal Yoga Cards. 

Here is a look at where the conversation has been, 20–26 June 2026. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this edition of SNAICC in the News contains the name of Kumanjayi Little Baby, and some of the links to coverage of a child who has died, including her image, used with her family’s permission. 

Child Safety Reforms in Queensland and NT Risks More Harm  

This week the Guardian Australia’s Indigenous Affairs reporter Sarah Collard reported that the proposals in Queensland and the Northern Territory threaten culture and safety.  

The story highlighted the concern that Northern Territory Government’s plans to replace the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle with a “universal principle”. Concerns that were also reported in First Nations news.  

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle told the Guardian that child safety was always paramount but was being lost to “debate and politicking”. 

“If we were genuinely serious about children, what we’d be doing is having really hard conversations about how the systems have failed, our communities have failed our families, and most importantly, harmed our children,”  

“There should not be a debate between culture and safety. Culture is safety. In legislation, where we do have the child placement principle embedded, it says ‘best interests of the child’. Now that means whole child: who you are, who you are right now, where you’re going, and who you’re going to become.” 

 Coverage in the Guardian also focused on the findings of the Queensland Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety inquiry which early this month handed down 52 recommendations ranging from removing all children under five from residential care, a widely supported move, to establishing adoption as a permanency option for children who cannot return home, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. 

In coverage in the West Australian, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle spoke to Dechlan Brennan about concerns to expand adoption was deeply troubling for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: 

“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 rejected the inquiry’s conclusion that racism is “a motivating or causal factor in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are placed in out-of-home care at 9.3 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. 

They make up eight per cent of Queensland’s youth population, but almost half of all children in state care. 

Speaking with Dechlan Brennan in the West Australian about the findings, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle described the conclusion as: 

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

This week in The Conversation, researchers found that national child protection spending has almost doubled in a decade, from $5.4 billion to $10.2 billion, without improving outcomes for children. 

Most of that money goes to crisis response and out-of-home care, rather than the prevention and family support that keeps children safe. 

The same research points to family-based care, and to the Child Placement Principle, as what the evidence supports. 

SNAICC has long argued in our Family Matters, that the over-representation of our children in out-of-home care requires investment to be redirected to family support, Aboriginal Family-Led Decision Making and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), and for the Child Placement Principle to be properly applied. 

Yet only around 17 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care in the Territory are placed with family or kin, the lowest rate in the country, according to the Family Matters Report 2025.

Reforming and Resourcing the Child Protection System Needed 

Eight weeks after the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby, community leaders in Mparntwe/Alice Springs have warned that Northern Territory and federal government responses remain inadequate, with SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle saying what is needed is better-resourced child protection and support services, not new laws, as the ABC reported. 

Community leaders are calling for services that are properly resourced, and for government funding to reach the families and communities who need it. 

On ABC Radio’s PM with Samantha Donovan, Catherine Liddle said the system cannot meet the need while it remains under-resourced: 

“It is a department and a workforce that has been under incredible pressure for a very long time, and if it is under-resourced it cannot respond to the need in community.” 

 SNAICC told the inquiry the Bill would make children less safe, not safer, as The Sector reported: 

“But despite its stated intent, we do not believe this Bill will make children safer. We believe it will exacerbate existing weaknesses in the system and ultimately place more children at risk.” 

Earlier this month, the Northern Territory Children’s Commissioner report revealed that nearly one in three children in care experienced harm, and that in more than a quarter of those cases the person responsible was the child’s own carer. 

Catherine Liddle also spoke with Jane Bardon from ABC News: 

“We are still failing children and families. You can see it when you walk through our town and when you go into remote communities, that we aren’t providing what children and families need to be thriving.” 

This is a failure of government implementation, investment and accountability, not a failure of our families. 

SNAICC remains ready to work in genuine partnership with the Northern Territory Government on reform that keeps children safe and connected. 

Living Our Truth: Marlee Silva to Lead Children’s Day 2026 

SNAICC has welcomed acclaimed writer, podcaster and television presenter Marlee Silva as the 2026 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day Ambassador, as The Sector reported. 

Marlee Silva is a proud Gamilaroi and Dunghutti woman who grew up on Dharrawal Country. She wrote and directed the documentary Skin in the Game and is the author of My Tidda, My Sister and the children’s book Stand Proud. 

In announcing the appointment, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said: 

“Marlee lives healing through truth-telling in her work sharing stories of strength and success about our communities, families and children through her documentaries, books, podcast and in the media.”
 

Children’s Day is held on 4 August and is an opportunity for all Australians to celebrate the strength, culture and identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, and the role that family and community play in every child’s life. 

From Country to Classroom: The Bushland Animal Yoga Cards 

SNAICC’s Bushland Animal Yoga Cards, a new early childhood resource pairing movement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, native animals and connection to Country, have been featured in SGS News. 

In launching the resource, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said: 

“The cards are in response to services asking for physical resources that were more contextually appropriate to our children’s lives.” 

SNAICC’s Bushland Animal Yoga Cards help educators support our children through mindfulness, movement and connection to Country. 

The Bushland Animal Yoga Cards are available now on the SNAICC website.