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In a secret meeting as Victoria’s budget was being announced, the full scale of the historical abuse of children in state care – and its impact on the government’s finances – was being laid bare.
Though much was made of the budget’s flagship announcement of $400 for every public school student, costing $287m, a similar amount will be spent paying victims of institutional care via civil claims and a redress scheme that, until Tuesday, the government had only committed $7.5m to.
One of the people in room, …
The 1997 Bringing Them Home report into the removal of Aboriginal children from their families was a turning point in Australia’s history. The inquiry rejected past government policies of assimilation and endorsed the importance of keeping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with their families.
Reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care is now a …
Children as young as two are stuck living in state-run homes with paid carers despite a royal commission calling seven years ago for an end to the practice.
Over the Christmas and New Year period there were hundreds of children living in these homes after being removed from unsafe families.
A snapshot taken on December 6 reveals eight toddlers and preschoolers, including a two-year-old, were among 118 children under 10 living in government-run houses.
This goes against a recommendation in a milestone …
A new national report in Australia has found Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 10.5 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children, with its authors warning more must be done to turn the tide on current trends.
The Family Matters annual report, released today in Adelaide by the national peak body for First Nations children and families, SNAICC, highlighted the state of child…
Some children in out-of-home care in Tasmania were not regularly visited by safety officers after a shift to a case management policy which violated their rights, a peak advocate says.
The state department responsible for out-of-home care last year moved to a team case management model as a result of staffing shortages.
It meant some young people no longer had individual safety officers but were instead managed by a team who they could contact via a generic email or telephone number.
Almost 400 children were shifted to the model in the first four months of its operation.
There was a significant, but quiet, development in Queensland this month likely to have far-reaching implications beyond the two traumatic and personal stories of child removals and hidden family histories driving it.
“Child protection class action launched alleging racial discrimination,” the headline of a post on the Cairns-based Bottoms English Lawyers website read two weeks ago.
The fledgling case hinges on two elements: the treatment of First Nations children, and their parents, within the Queensland system.
“The DOCS Class Action involves claims for breaches of the Racial…
The voices of children and young people, including those who are most vulnerable and marginalised, are not often reflected in the “evidence” that drives policy debates and programs intended to improve their lives. These Southern Cross University researchers are on a mission to change that.
One of Australia’s leading Indigenous child welfare advocates has told a Victorian truth-telling inquiry that permanent care orders and “racist” carers are severing links between some First Nations children and their culture.
Prof Muriel Bamblett, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (Vacca), told the state’s Yoorrook Justice Commission that permanent care orders…
Child protection workers within the former Department of Health and Human Services were racist and disparaging towards the Aboriginal families and community-controlled organisation they were supposed to be working with to keep children safe, the Yoorrook Justice Commission has heard.
The state government has ordered an immediate review of out-of-home care services for children in NSW, following claims two boys were left hungry and too cold to go to school this year while their care provider sought thousands of dollars a day to look after them.
In a devastating assessment of the sector, a children’s court magistrate has detailed the “unconscionable” treatment, “appalling neglect” and “failure” in care by providers, including Lifestyle Solutions, and the NSW Department of Communities and Justice.