Federal government should take control of child protection: Jacinta Nampijinpa Price

A Coalition senator has called for the federal government to take responsibility for child protection amid a political storm about crime in Alice Springs.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has called for child protection to become a federal responsibility as she levelled serious allegations about the Northern Territory's system of kinship care.

The Country Liberal senator claimed foster parents have told her Territory Families are putting kids back in the hands of abusers, during a television interview in which she doubled down on her opposition for the Voice to parliament.

Senator Price said she had “no reason” to believe the foster parents’ allegations were untrue, as she had heard them “over and over.”

“I’m talking about foster carers who are also Indigenous, who have come to me with these grave concerns,” she said.

“So this is why we need a royal commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children.”

Senator Price made the allegations in an interview on Sunday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The allegations were categorically rejected by NT Police Minister Kate Worden just hours later, who called for the senator to provide evidence to back up her claims.

“Kinship care is not a system that places children back into communities or into households with their perpetrators,” she said.

“You can’t just claim these things and then walk away. This is classic, drop a bomb walk away. She needs to come forward and make some declarations around what evidence she has that supports that view.”

The Northern Territory senator, and former Alice Springs deputy mayor, is speculated to be a frontrunner to be appointed to the Coalition frontbench to replace Julian Leeser — who quit in order to support the Voice referendum.

Senator Nampijinpa Price is a longtime opponent of the referendum, which would enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the Constitution, claiming the proposal would racially divide Australia.

She said the only referendum she could support was one that put the “lives and responsibilities of children into the federal arena.”

Last week, the peak body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children rebuked Senator Nampijinpa Price and Liberal leader Peter Dutton for their comments on sexual abuse in Alice Springs.

Mr Dutton spent two days in Alice Spring alongside the NT senator. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care chief executive Catherine Liddle said there was no evidence to support Mr Dutton’s claims of “rampant” reports of abuse.

“Sexual abuse is a really serious crime, which has a devastating impact on children, families and communities — this is not a political football,” she said in a statement.

“The claims of ‘rampant’ abuse fly in the face of evidence. Data from Territory Families show there has been no escalation in investigations of sexual abuse or exploitation.”

Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy on Sunday reiterated her call for politicians aware of abuse to report it to authorities.

“My direct question to Peter Dutton … it was simply that as leader please be responsible to report mandatory any sexual abuse that you are aware of that‘s occurring to a child or to a child that returning to an abuser that you know of,” she told Sky News.

“I think we've got to be mindful that this is such a serious area. Any abuse of a child anywhere in this country, or around the world, is not on.”