Page 488 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 2019
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13.9 times more likely to be removed from homes than other children. Minister, why is your government continuing to fail Indigenous children in the ACT?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I thank Miss Burch for her question. I am not sure that I can add much to my previous answers. As I have said previously, the numbers we see today are unacceptable. That is why we are investing in change. That is why we have established a wholly Aboriginal-led review that is looking at the circumstances of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child or young person in the child protection and out of home care system.
We are looking at systemic change and we are reviewing the cases of every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child in the system. We are working with Aboriginal community controlled organisations to deliver new programs and new services, like functional family therapy and family group conferencing. We are learning the lessons from other jurisdictions. We had the leading players from VACCA, the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, a community controlled organisation, working with us, to better understand how they work.
One of the key recommendations that I received in December—and I have certainly discussed this with the chair of the Our Booris, Our Way committee—is the fact that we do not have an Aboriginal community controlled child welfare organisation in the ACT. We cannot hand over responsibility and enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to deliver services when that organisation does not exist. We are very keen to work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, to work with existing community controlled organisations, to develop more capability by Aboriginal-led organisations and Aboriginal community controlled organisations, and for them to work with us to address this significant national challenge. (Time expired.)
MISS C BURCH: Minister, as observed by the Our Booris, Our Way chair, the existing programs and systems are just not working for Aboriginal families. What are you doing right now to fix this?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I am afraid that at this point I am going to have to refer Miss Burch to my previous answers.
MR MILLIGAN: Minister, what is your response to the observation from the ACT Children and Young People Commissioner that what is being done does not seem to be affecting the rates of children in care?
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I have probably the same answer to Mr Milligan: I refer him to my fairly comprehensive previous answers. But I also note that, as I said previously, the absolute numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in out of home care are unlikely to fall dramatically in the short term because 60 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in care are in kinship care placements. Where they are in stable placements they are likely to stay there, so they are likely to stay in the out of home care system. They are safe and they are well—I hope they are well; I do not speak for every single one of them. They are safe in their kinship care placements, and we do everything we
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