Yoorrook Justice Commission grills government over failures in child protection system

Just hours after the release of a submission from Premier Daniel Andrews, his government was slammed by the lack of work to help vulnerable kids.

Victoria’s powerful truth-telling inquiry has slammed the state government over the horrific condition of the state’s child protection system.

Just hours after the release of a submission from Premier Daniel Andrews that the number of Aboriginal Victorians in the system was a “source of great shame”, the Yoorrook Justice Commission delivered a scathing assessment of the work done by authorities to help vulnerable kids.

A key focus on Friday was the use of “cultural safety plans” which help ensure Aboriginal Victorians in child protection maintain their connection to their community.

But the department’s Acting Associate Secretary, Argiri Alisandratos said the state still had a long way to go.

He said while there was improvement, only about 60 per cent of Aboriginal kids in the system had a plan despite having a target of 100 percent.

Chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission Professor Eleanor Bourke AM. Picture: Brianna Young/Yoorrook Justice Commission

This earned a sharp rebuke from Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter who said the figure and the department’s response was not good enough.

She slammed the state for not yet mentioning the 1997 Bringing Them Home report which tackled the historic damage of child removal policies.

“These kids will be lost to their families, to the culture,” Commissioner Hunter said.

“I seriously recommend that the department all go and read that report because this is not good enough.”

Commissioner Hunter said the state had an obligation to make sure Aboriginal children in the system understood who they were.

“You’re the parent,” she said.

“Who holds you accountable?

“We didn’t ask you here not to answer our questions and to shuffle around.

“We want to know what these improvements are.”

Commissioner Kevin Bell also lashed the state over its efforts so far to improve the system.

He said when Yoorrook had gone to the community for feedback, they had received evidence from people with “tears in their eyes” about losing contact with their culture and families.

“This is not a question of room for improvement, this is absolutely fundamental,” Commissioner Bell said.

“I don’t get the sense of urgency and pressing concern (needed) in your evidence about this matter.

“A system which produces shameful rates of removal of Indigenous people from their family is a shameful system.”

The commission also heard that 96 per cent of kinship carers in the system received the lowest level of allowance, which has been criticised as well below the cost needed to care for a child.

Commission members, Kevin Bell AM KC, Sue-Anne Hunter, Professor Eleanor Bourke AM, Travis Lovett and Professor Maggie Walter. Picture: Brianna Young/Yoorrook Justice Commission

This placed a “significant burden” on those who were asked to look after family members.

In his final remarks, Mr Alisandratos said he accepted the “significant level of shame” in how the department cared for Indigenous children.

“I accept that we have not provided adequate support and we have failed many, many children and young people,” he said.

“That does not diminish in any way our genuine commitment to continuing to improve and to work tirelessly.”

Mr Alisandratos said many of the changes the government were working on were inside the current system which had its own limits.

“If we are truly to affect significant change ... It’s going to require a very bold approach to a future system that is absolutely Aboriginal led,” he said.

“I caution that that will require careful consideration, planning and support of all of those that will provide that support to families across the state.

“But it’s clearly not good enough and we clearly need to do more.”

Number of Aboriginal Victorians in child protection a ‘great shame’

Earlier, Mr Andrews acknowledged serious failings, which meant the state’s Indigenous population were overrepresented in these areas and that large-scale changes were needed.

“First Peoples experience ongoing injustices,” he wrote.

“These injustices are not confined to history - they persist to this day.

“The ongoing over-representation of First Peoples in the criminal justice and child protection system is a source of great shame for the Victorian government.”

Mr Andrews said “significant structural change” was needed to provide “true self-determination and justice” for those affected by these problems.

Aboriginal Victorian kids have been hit hard by flaws in child protection, with the state’s powerful truth-telling inquiry hearing a fifth of this population are caught up in the troubled system.

After a significant delay in the government’s response, the Yoorrook Justice Commission on Thursday grilled bureaucrats over significant failings in how Aboriginal children are handled by the current system.

It has the powers of a Royal Commission and is currently probing historical and current problems with child protection and justice.

The Premier said the inquiry would be a key step in this process followed be efforts followed by a Treaty with Aboriginal Victorians.

“I look forward to the commission’s recommendations for bold reform and its vital contribution to the Treaty process,” Mr Andrews wrote.

In its submissions to Yoorrook, the Premier’s department laid out a history of injustices to Aboriginal Victorians and outlined the Andrews government’s policies to address these problems.

But for child protection and justice, the document also accepted more work was needed.

This includes Budget reforms which could transfer spending powers on Aboriginal Victorians to a decision-making body made up of elected community members.

For child protection and other family services, the Department of Premier and Cabinet flagged changes to ensure “greater First Peoples-led decision making” across the system.

Daniel Andrews acknowledged the serious failings in the system. Picture: David Crosling

Speaking for the state was the Acting Associate Secretary for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing Argiri Alisandratos.

Evidence provided to the commission shows that the rate of Aboriginal kids in the child protection system surged from 14.6 per cent at the end of 2016 to 20.9 per cent by the end of 2022.

At the same time, the rate of kids in out of home care rose from 7.4 per cent to 10.38 per cent.

The inquiry comes as the Andrews government has been pushed publicly to fix major flaws in child protection amid warnings of staff shortages and horrific problems.

The Commissioner for Children and Young People Liana Buchanan wrote to the state this month warning that inaction of her recommendations was allowing kids to be routinely abused in residential care.

She also expressed frustration about regularly dealing with reports of horrific crimes against children without seeing meaningful change.

Yoorrook on Thursday heard that Aboriginal children were the most likely to be scarred from their experience with the broader trouble-plagued system.

Counsel assisting the commission, Fiona McLeod SC read out a series of alarming figures about the number of incidents recorded from 2021 to 2022.

“Aboriginal children and young people, relative to non Aboriginal children and young people, represent five times more reports of concern,” she said.

“Seven times more investigations leading to nine times more substantiations and 22 times more in children and young people’s care services.”

Ms Mcleod also warned the commission had received evidence that those figures would worsen.

Despite this, Mr Alisandratos said he was encouraged by signs that the number of kids in care had fallen slightly.

“What we’ve seen, particularly in the last 12 months, is a reduction of children in out-of-home care and a more significant reduction of Aboriginal children in out-of home care,” he said.

“We have seen that reduction come down by about 3 per cent, which is promising.”

But Commissioner Travis Lovett shot back over this response.

“We’ve gotta be more aspirational than that … seriously,” he said.

Mr Alisandratos acknowledged that there was a long way to go to improve outcomes for Aboriginal children in the state.

“Critically in Victoria, the children and families services system has been unable to reduce the over-representation of First Peoples children in care,” he said in his witness statement.

“On the current trajectory and without accounting for the impact of the existing system settings and services elements, or any further scaling of the state’s reform efforts, the current Closing the Gap estimates predict that this rate of removal could rise to 16.9 per cent by 2031.”

Mr Alisandratos said there was also a Bill before parliament that would help to improve the system by giving more powers to Aboriginal community Controlled Organisations.

Under the laws, these groups would be able to intervene earlier and divert families away from child protection.

But he said it was clear even more change was needed and the department would use the Yoorrook inquiry as part of the process.

“It is evident … that reform approaches need to be bold and focused more on system transformation through self-determination and Treaty and less on incremental change to the existing system,” Mr Alisandratos said.