SNAICC in the News | 9 October 2026

3–9 October 2026

In this week’s SNAICC in the News, SNAICC partners with the Coaxial Foundation on Aboriginal-led early learning, Project BIRD is named a finalist in the Australian Human Rights Awards, and Catherine Liddle urges action on child protection in Western Australia and Queensland.

Here is a look at where the conversation has been, 3–9 October 2026.

New Partnership Backs Aboriginal-Led Early Learning

SNAICC has signed a three-year partnership with the Coaxial Foundation to grow Aboriginal-led early childhood education and care. The Australian reported on the partnership as part of Nicola Forrest’s donation of more than $500 million to the foundation.

The news also ran in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, WAtoday, The West Australian and Women’s Agenda, and across Seven West Media’s regional papers.

The Australian Financial Review focused on the partnership’s aim of growing the early learning workforce that Aboriginal organisations can draw on.

The partnership funds two programs to help Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) open and staff early learning services. Nest and Nurture helps communities set up their own services, with intensive support along the way. The Workforce Innovation Fund will give grants for workforce solutions that communities design and build evidence on what works.

In SNAICC’s media release announcing the partnership, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said:

“Demand for ACCO-led early childhood services is far greater than the capacity of the current system to deliver.”

The partnership adds to SNAICC’s early childhood development work, including the Early Years Support program, to grow early learning that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities run for their own children.

WA’s Roadmap for Aboriginal Children Left on the Shelf

SNAICC has called on the Western Australian Government to act on its own plan to reduce the number of Aboriginal children in care. In an opinion piece for The Australian, SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle said the plan has gone unused for years.

The WA Government commissioned the WA Roadmap in 2022. SNAICC delivered it in September 2023, after working with more than 200 stakeholders across the state. The government has never formally responded.

Writing in The Australian, Catherine Liddle said:

“But the government mothballed its own report, ignoring the recommendations developed by the state’s Aboriginal community and its years of expertise, while Aboriginal children continue to be at risk.”

Western Australia has the highest over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children receiving child protection services in the country, at almost 18 times the rate of other children. Yet it spends just 4.4 per cent of its child protection budget on family support, the lowest share of any jurisdiction.

She said the situation in Port Hedland shows what happens without investment in housing, health, education and drug and alcohol services for families. She wrote that this is “because successive governments have refused to listen to those families and invest in community solutions.”

SNAICC is calling on the WA Government to implement the Roadmap, built on solutions from Aboriginal communities themselves.

Learn more about the WA Roadmap.

Project BIRD a Finalist in the Australian Human Rights Awards

SNAICC’s Project BIRD is a finalist in the Community Award at the 2026 Australian Human Rights Awards. Michael Currie, SNAICC’s Acting Executive Director, Programs, spoke about the nomination with Trendy Trev on National Talk Black, broadcast across the National Indigenous Radio Service network.

Project BIRD (Believe, Inquire, Respond to Disclosures) trains primary health care workers to respond safely when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people disclose child sexual abuse.

Currie told Trendy Trev the project grew out of community:

“It came from community up, by mob, for mob, to improve culturally responsive, trauma-informed approaches.”

He said health workers had told the project they worried about getting it wrong on a difficult subject, and that a culturally responsive approach leaves them better equipped to support the people who come to them.

Currie said he was proud of the recognition, and that it belonged to everyone who shaped the training: the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and community members who took part in national yarning circles, and SNAICC’s co-design partner Yamurrah. He said the nomination showed why that work matters:

“This work is incredibly difficult, as I said, but how critical it is to have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective on complex issues like child sexual abuse.”

Winners will be announced in Sydney on 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Discontinued Class Actions Do Not End the Need for Accountability

SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle spoke to ABC News after two Queensland class actions alleging racial discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families by the state’s child safety system were discontinued in the Federal Court for lack of funding.

Citing SNAICC’s Family Matters report, ABC News reported that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are more than nine times as likely as other children to be in out-of-home care or on permanent orders. Catherine Liddle called it a “gross” over-representation.

She told ABC News:

“The fact that people are considering class actions shows how serious it is and how desperate people are to get a change in how governments are treating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.”

She said children removed from their parents often live with “serious, lifelong consequences,” including difficulty accessing healthcare, education and employment.

SNAICC is calling on governments to confront racism in child protection systems and invest in prevention and Aboriginal community-controlled services.

Read the Family Matters Report 2025.