Putting children’s interests first

Regardless of background, children at risk of serious harm in dangerous family situations deserve protection. At the same time, state authorities must ensure that families suffering the effects of substance abuse, violence and acute poverty arising from bad money management receive help to improve their lives so they are able to bring up their children well. Striking the right balance, in the interests of children, can be difficult.

For a quarter of a century, successive West Australian governments have watched the proportion of Indigenous children taken from their families and placed in care rise alarmingly, Paige Taylor reports. More than 57 per cent of children taken from their families and placed in care in WA are Indigenous – up from 22 per cent in 1996. The extent of such removals, out of all proportion when 6.3 per cent of children in WA are Indigenous, shows something is profoundly wrong.

At last, Taylor reports, unpublished figures are showing a reversal. After the growth in the rate of removals slowed last year, the number of Indigenous children in foster care fell 0.8 per cent in the year ending June 30. While progress has been slow, community-controlled organisations such as the Wungening Aboriginal Corporation have done wonders, working with about 250 families a year since 2018. Their family support workers have helped parents at risk of losing their children learn to cook, budget and avoid the need for child welfare officers to intervene. Such experience underlines the benefits of Indigenous service providers working with their own people.

At the same time, non-Indigenous foster parents, many of whom are understandably distressed to say goodbye to children they’ve nurtured, educated and grown to love, warn red flags have been ignored and decisions made in haste about returning children to troubled homes. Reunification of families is important. So is stability and good care.

The relevant government department, the Department of Communities, must examine individual cases carefully and make decisions on merit. Good foster carers play a critical role in keeping vulnerable children safe. As the department also recognises, family, culture and community are central to Indigenous children developing a sense of their identity. Increased efforts to reunify Indigenous children and their families were a new target of the new Closing the Gap agreement signed by all states and territories last year. The issue will be highlighted later this week when Scott Morrison is expected to release an update. Progress in reunifying families needs to be made while putting the best interests of children first, always.