Indigenous grants to help child protection

Indigenous organisations across Australia are competing for government grants of up to $5m each in a bid to reshape the child protection system in every state and territory.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Indigenous organisations across Australia are competing for government grants of up to $5m each in a bid to reshape the child protection system in every state and territory.

The Albanese government has made a total of $44m in grants for Indigenous organisations as part of a commitment to work with them to reduce the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care. The organisations will be chosen for their ideas on how to help families with complex problems, especially those at risk of having their children removed.

Five out of every 1000 non-Indigenous children in Australia are in out-of-home care. For Indigenous children, the rate is 57.6 per 1000 children and rising.

The recast national agreement on Closing the Gap signed by every government and a coalition of Indigenous organisations in 2020 included a pledge to reduce the rate at which Indigenous children were removed from their families by 45 per cent by 2031.

According to data published by the Productivity Commission, only Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have achieved a reduction.

In WA, community-controlled Indigenous organisations have become contractors to the McGowan government in child protection. Those organisations have worked with parents at risk of losing their children, including about the changes they need to make. In most cases, parents have been able to keep their children.

Indigenous organisations will receive grants if they can show how their project will improve existing services. They must also show how they will include Indigenous communities in the ­design of their project.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the measures would be integral to delivering culturally appropriate support that First Nations families had lacked in the past. The ­Albanese government will on Tuesday commit a further $6.2m “to develop the cultural awareness and trauma responsive skills and capabilities of the child and family sector workforce”.