Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People to hold inquiry into Aboriginal child placement

A new top-level inquiry will examine why so many Indigenous children end up in care – amid fears SA is heading towards repeating the Stolen Generation.

The “unacceptable rate” of Indigenous children being removed from their families and the fear of another Stolen Generation will be at the centre of a new inquiry being held by the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People.

Commissioner April Lawrie said the year-long inquiry would examine the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle, which mandates that if a child was removed from a parent, they must be placed within their family, cultural and community context.

“We need to turn the tide on losing Aboriginal children to the system and into care away from their families,’’ Ms Lawrie said.

The Commissioner said in SA, the chance of a child reunifying with their family was lower than anywhere else in Australia once they had been removed and placed in care.

“In effect, it’s a very rapid pathway into removal and a very rapid pathway into long-term orders,’’ she said.

April Lawrie, the Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People. Picture: Matt Turner

In the last budget, the state government lowered its target from 70 per cent to 65 per cent for the number of children to be housed according to the legislated Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. But Ms Lawrie said only three in 10 children were placed with Aboriginal relatives of kin.

She said there was “systemic racism’’ within the Department of Child Protection that disregarded the needs of Aboriginal people.

“I’ve heard far too often from Aboriginal children and their families about how families are marginalised, the voice of the Aboriginal child is marginalised in the system with regard to their care and their wellbeing,’’ the Commissioner said.

“It is also taking notice of the words of the Aboriginal community in South Australia that there is a very great fear of Stolen Generations being repeated in a very systematic way, with the failure to adhere and comply to the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.’’

Ms Lawrie said her inquiry would take evidence across the state from families, communities, state government authorities, non-government organisations, workers and service providers.

The aim of the inquiry was to examine the “current policies, practices and procedures of state authorities’’.

Ms Lawrie said the inquiry was an “opportunity in South Australia to do something really transformative’’ and that many of the best ideas would emerge from Aboriginal communities.

“I want to see how we can improve the way in which the state responds to Aboriginal children, families, and the inquiry will reveal a whole range of solutions that I’ve no doubt will come from the Aboriginal community,’’ she said.