Inquiry finds removal of First Nations children into out-of-home care at alarming rates

ABC NEWS (Australia)

South Australia’s Aboriginal Children's Commissioner has been looking into the removal of First Nations children after the ABC shone a spotlight on the issue.

Transcript

00:00 Well, the Commissioner April Laurie has spent the past two years investigating the removal

00:05 and placement of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care as part of an ongoing inquiry.

00:11 She's previously told the ABC that she's heard from a number of mothers that the Department

00:15 for Child Protection is removing First Nations newborns from hospitals without informing

00:20 them.

00:21 She says that some mothers were not aware of the department's actions when planning

00:24 those removals and some were denied any opportunity to be involved in the planning of their baby's

00:29 care, leaving new mothers traumatised.

00:32 Now about 1,000 people have given evidence to this inquiry and there's been a number

00:36 of public hearings conducted.

00:38 One of those in November heard the Department for Child Protection's Deputy Chief Adam Riley

00:43 apologise after he was given evidence that decisions to remove Aboriginal children were

00:48 made in advance and with no notice to families.

00:51 Now the Commissioner released a preliminary report back in October.

00:55 That report found that between 2020 and 2021, one out of every two South Australian Aboriginal

01:01 children was subject to at least one Child Protection notification compared to one out

01:06 of every 12 non-Aboriginal children and it also found that one in three Aboriginal children

01:11 were reported to Child Protection authorities before they were born.

01:15 This afternoon the Commissioner is expected to hand down the final report of her inquiry.

01:20 The State Government has previously said that the 17 recommendations which came out of that

01:24 preliminary report would be carefully considered but the Commissioner has warned that unless

01:29 urgent action is made to current practices, Aboriginal children could once again be returning

01:36 back into state care at rates similar to those of the stolen generation.

01:39 So we'll be waiting to see what more comes out of this investigation later today.

01:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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