The Northern Territory parliament has passed changes to child safety legislation, with the Country Liberal Party (CLP) describing its reform as “the most significant overhaul of the Territory’s child protection system in a generation”.
The amendment, which has been the subject of criticism from Aboriginal leaders and human rights organisations, passed at 10:29pm on Tuesday.
In a statement, NT Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill said children had historically been “failed by a system that acted too late” and claimed “these reforms fix that”.
Robyn Cahill and Clinton Howe spoke about the changes outside of parliament, ahead of the amendment passing on Tuesday night. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
“Tonight we didn’t just say every child matters — we put it into law,” she said in a statement.
“We are intervening earlier, backing families to turn things around, and keeping Aboriginal children connected to kin and culture where it is safe to do so.“
In the statement, the CLP said its bill had “introduced proactive efforts requirements so that families get support sooner”.
Despite critics raising concerns the bill could weaken the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle and lead to more child removals, the NT government said its amendment “modernises” the policy “to keep children connected to kin and culture”.
The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle underpins the NT’s current child protection legislation, which acknowledges connection to country, culture and community as fundamental for the safety, wellbeing and identity of Indigenous children.
The CLP has previously said the new bill would introduce a “universal principle” which would ensure decisions are made in “the best interests of every child”, “regardless of background”.
Lia Finocchiaro says the old system was failing children in the NT. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the CLP was “putting the right of a child to be safe first, and above all else”.
She said the NT’s child protection system needed to be overhauled because it had been failing Territory children.
“One thing was for sure, the child protection system could not stay as it was,” Mrs Finocchiaro said in the statement.
NT government ‘ignored evidence’
The controversial reforms have been criticised by politicians and experts in the child protection sector for being rushed through parliament, with some saying the CLP failed to listen to community concerns.
Independent MLA Justine Davis, who moved several amendments during debate of the bill, described the law reforms as “a tragic missed opportunity” and warned that Territory children would “bear the consequences for decades to come”.
“The CLP government chose to ignore the overwhelming evidence presented to parliament, passing a harmful law that nearly the entire child protection system has warned them will put children at risk,” she said in a statement.
Member for Mulka Yingiya Guyula also opposed the bill, saying the reforms would “cause harm and hurt many people”.
Yingiya Guyula opposed the child protection bill in parliament. (ABC News: Peter Garnish)
“I am angry and devastated that the people in this chamber are making decisions about the removal of our children without the decency to talk with us, work with us, listen to our solutions and fix the problems,” he said.
In the lead-up to last night’s parliamentary debate, the NT Legislative Scrutiny Committee hosted two days of public hearings last month, where it heard from experts including Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC) chief executive Catherine Liddle.
Speaking to ABC Radio on Wednesday morning, Ms Liddle said NT government claims about all children being treated equally under the new bill were “a form of distraction”.
“The truth of it is, legislation in and of itself can’t change the world — but what it can do is get you on the front page of a paper, it can make you look like you’re doing something when you’re not doing anything,” she said.
Ms Liddle said it was “absolute cruelty” to ignore the evidence put forward by advocates and those with lived experience.
“You can’t pretend to care about the safety of children when you ignore the evidence about what keeps children safe,”
she said.
“This legislation effectively erodes protections that were put in place because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system suffer greatly, and that harm is lifelong.
“It is unforgivable to make decisions that you know will unfairly impact and damage children for the rest of their lives.”
Catherine Liddle gave evidence before the NT Legislative Scrutiny Committee last month, but says the CLP has not listened to the advice put forward. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
Speaking on ABC Radio this morning, Clara Mills from the Katherine Women’s Information and Legal Service agreed with the criticism and said the CLP had been “very disingenuous” about its reform.
“It is very easy to say ‘we are looking at the safety of children’, and use that as a blanket statement that covers what is happening,” she said.
“But actually understanding child protection, and child protection legislation, is very nuanced.
“The Northern Territory government has heard significant evidence that the problem is not with the bill, but with the implementation of child protection.”
Critics of the NT government’s changes to child protection laws held a rally outside NT Parliament House. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
Sue-Anne Hunter, the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, was also critical of the bill, claiming it would “only have negative impacts on the care, safety and protection of First Nations children in the NT”.
“This knee-jerk reaction is not something to celebrate, it is something to mourn,” she said.
“This is not ignorance. This is neglect.”
Prior to the amendment being debated yesterday, hundreds gathered outside Parliament House to protest, including representatives from legal services, women’s domestic violence organisations and families with lived experience of the child safety system.
Critics say girl’s death being politicised
During the earlier parliamentary debate, an independent review into the family circumstances of Kumanjayi Little Baby before her tragic death was also tabled.
The five-year-old girl was allegedly abducted from a house in an Alice Springs town camp and murdered in April this year.
The Webb-Shanahan review found serious departmental failures over how her case was managed within the department and made seven recommendations, including the need for a “comprehensive reset” of the department’s operating model.
“Yesterday, the CLP tabled their own independent report which found the problem with child protection in the Northern Territory is workforce shortages, poor understanding of their own frameworks, and an inability of the Northern Territory government to administer their own legislation,” Ms Mills said.
“What we heard at the Scrutiny Committee was the CEO of the Department of Children and Families give evidence that there is no money — no budget line — for the implementation of this legislation, that the intention is to absorb it into the operational capacity of the department as it currently exists.
“That department is stretched beyond capacity and cannot do its current function.”
Justine Davis says the CLP did not take into consideration all of the submissions made in relation to the child protection system. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)
Ms Davis criticised the CLP’s decision to debate a child protection bill on the same day the government-commissioned review handed down its findings.
“[This] is a blatant undermining of the scrutiny process,”
she said.
“It’s clear that this bill has been an established part of the CLP’s agenda — waiting in the wings, regardless of the evidence.
“It comes as no surprise that the Webb-Shanahan review made exactly the same recommendations as the 120 opponents to this bill, who provided submissions to the Scrutiny Committee.
“The CLP never intended to listen to this advice, and their bill addresses none of it.”
North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) chief executive Ben Grimes accused the NT government of using “the human tragedy of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s death” as a political opportunity to push the laws through parliament.
Ben Grimes says this is not good law making. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)
“This is not good law making, this is not decision making, this is not good leadership,” he said.
Mr Grimes said it was misleading for the CLP government to suggest its critics supported the status quo of the current child safety system.
“So many organisations, NAAJA included, have been saying for years that the child protection system is not working, that is something that we all agree on,”
he said.
“But the failures in the child protection system are failures of how the department operates, partly through under-resourcing, partly through its own internal poor practices.”
He said the legislative amendments, combined with the shortage of foster and kinship placement, meant children would be “effectively warehoused” in purchased out-of-home care.
Ms Mills said the child safety bill would not work without the allocation of additional resources, which had already been made clear to the Legislative Scrutiny Committee.
“All witnesses, including witnesses who supported the legislation, have said [this reform] would require significant investment,” she said.
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