Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner April Lawrie releases findings which reveal half of all Aboriginal children in SA are reported to the Department for Child Protection during their childhood

The Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner has released findings which reveals startling statistics that one in every 10 Aboriginal children across SA face.

April Lawrie, Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young people in Victoria Square. Picture Matt Turner.

The “treachery” of removing babies from Aboriginal mothers straight after birth, without warning, has been lashed in an alarming new report which also lays bare soaring rates of child protection reports about Indigenous children.

Aboriginal Children’s Commissioner April Lawrie has released the findings of an almost two-year inquiry which reveals half of all Aboriginal children in South Australia are reported to the Department for Child Protection (DCP) during their childhood.

April Lawrie, Commissioner for Aboriginal Children has released the findings of an almost two-year inquiry. Picture Matt Turner.

Ms Lawrie said “cultural bias” meant Aboriginal children were more likely to be taken into state care in situations where non-Aboriginal children would be left with family.

That has led to the startling statistic that one in every 10 Aboriginal children across SA is now living in state care, she said.

“Removal often becomes the first option, rather than the last resort. We’ve got things very wrong here in South Australia,” Ms Lawrie said.

Her report, titled Holding on to Our Future, shows that one in every two Aboriginal children were subject to at least one child protection notification in 2020-21, compared to one in every 12 non-Indigenous children.

The report also warns that fear of a heavy-handed response is preventing Aboriginal parents from seeking early support, citing cases “of struggling families looking to DCP for help, only to have their children removed”.

The disparity is present even before a child is born, as one in every three unborn Aboriginal babies was subject to a report to authorities in 2020-21, compared to one in 33 non-Indigenous babies.

The report also warns that fear of a heavy-handed response is preventing Aboriginal parents from seeking early support. Picture Matt Turner.

Ms Lawrie makes 32 recommendations, including:

IMMEDIATELY stopping the “treachery” of removing babies from mothers in hospital without warning.

ENSURING every Aboriginal child goes through a Family Group Conference, where relatives can have input, before a decision is made about whether to take them into care.

SHIFTING the power to make decisions about how much contact Aboriginal children in care have with family, and whether they can one day return home, from DCP to the courts.

INVESTING more in early support services and Aboriginal-run organisations.

REQUIRING DCP to report annually on whether it is meeting requirements to place Aboriginal children in care with extended family.

Since launching her inquiry in June 2022, Ms Lawrie has held 19 public hearings, received almost 900 documents, reviewed 30 case files and heard from more than 400 Aboriginal children, adult family members, carers and workers and another 500 people in the child protection sector.

Aboriginal children make up 5.5 per cent of the SA population aged under 18, but account for more than 37 per cent of kids in state care. Picture Matt Turner.

Aboriginal children make up 5.5 per cent of the SA population aged under 18, but account for more than 37 per cent of kids in state care.

Among them are 105 babies removed by DCP last financial year within one month of being born.

About a third of those infants were Aboriginal and most of those removals happened before the newborn was a week old.

Far too few indigenous children are placed with extended family or other Aboriginal carers, despite guidelines stressing this as best practice.

Ms Lawrie’s report shows almost two-thirds of Indigenous young people in care are either living in government homes with paid carers, with non-Aboriginal foster carers or with relatives who are not Aboriginal.

Once taken into care, it is much rarer for Aboriginal children to ever return to their families. In fact SA has the worst rate of Indigenous reunification in the country.

Nationally, about 16 per cent are reunited with their birth families compared to 3.8 per cent in SA in 2022–23.