AMSANT boss ‘felt sick’ at ‘racist’ treatment of Aboriginal foster kids

THE Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT boss says he ‘felt so sick’ reading the report detailing the abuse of a dozen Central Australian Aboriginal children in foster care, and has called on the NT Government to take ‘immediate and urgent’ action.

Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT CEO John Paterson says racism contributed to the fact that the alleged abuse was allowed to go on for so long, and government should do more to keep Aboriginal kids in the care of Aboriginal families. Picture: Supplied

THE Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT boss says he “felt so sick” reading the report detailing the abuse of a dozen Central Australian Aboriginal children in foster care, and has called on the NT Government to take “immediate and urgent” action.

The report, handed down by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner on Wednesday night, found the alleged physical, sexual and emotional abuse of the children was allowed to go on by the NT Government for 16 years.

AMSANT chief executive John Paterson said the revelations were alarming but not surprising.

“We were hearing about it anecdotally from networks and contacts and community members,” he said.

“It’s definitely proven that the system needs a lot of work, it’s still got a number of deficiencies.

“We’re calling on the government to take this report seriously and look carefully at the systematic failures that lead to the harm to these children.”

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Mr Paterson said racism contributed to the fact that the alleged abuse was allowed to go on for so long, and government should do more to keep Aboriginal kids in the care of Aboriginal families.

“They’re indigenous kids so it seems like the response for government has been just to remove the kids from their parents or their carers,” he said. “We would like to see bureaucrat or officers that have this responsibility to go in and undertake a thorough investigation to see where there’s support and assistance that may be required, and work with those families to try and fix that.”

“When there’s no other option but to place kids with non- indigenous carers, they need to ensure they undertake appropriate cultural awareness training.”

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However, Mr Paterson said any reform now should be led by Aboriginal organisations.

“This report has proven mainstream non-government organisations don’t have the capability, cultural sensitivity, awareness, network sand contacts needed to ensure kids in care are being given a safe, nurturing and caring service,” he said.

“The government need to build and work with Aboriginal leadership in the NT to establish appropriate service providers in the space.”