NT child protection laws face backlash over rushed changes

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of her family.

One week.

That's how long stakeholders have been given to respond to sweeping changes to Northern Territory child protection laws that Aboriginal groups say could do "generations" of harm.

More time was allowed for submissions on changes that included milk cartons and wine bottles in the NT's container deposit scheme last year.

The proposed amendments would overhaul the operation of the NT's child protection system and make it easier for Aboriginal children to be placed permanently with non-Indigenous carers and or in group homes.

Few areas of public policy carry such profound implications for a person's life and for First Nations communities in this country.

The ABC first reported that the Country Liberal Party (CLP) government was quietly working on similar changes more than a year ago.

But the CLP's linking of the changes with the alleged murder of Kumanjayi Little Baby in Alice Springs, and their sudden introduction to parliament, has stunned the NT's peak Indigenous groups.

None had input into the development of the legislation, despite Aboriginal children making up roughly 90 per cent of children taken into care.

"We have [here] the politicisation of a tragedy and we have rushed laws that will impact us most likely for generations to come," North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency chief executive Ben Grimes said on Wednesday.

"Aboriginal organisations, Aboriginal leaders, are not being brought into this conversation, yet it is Aboriginal families who are going to feel the brunt of the changes that are being proposed."

The NT government has not explained why it has given so little time for input on what is undeniably complex, sensitive and consequential legislative change.

The 50-page bill tabled in parliament this week would amend a piece of legislation that is itself almost 200 pages long.

Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill has not suggested there are imminent risks in the system that her changes would quickly address.

But the haste is such that the changes are on track to pass parliament before the snap child protection review ordered by the minister lands back on her desk.

That review, to be led by retired New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb and long-time NT public servant Greg Shanahan, suddenly has a far narrower scope than what was originally announced.

The minister swatted away the call of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Commissioner, Sue-Anne Hunter, for a broader inquiry including updated analysis of the many previously-made recommendations.

Such a review would likely highlight problems that governments — rather than struggling families — have the power to change, like adequate support for kinship care, enough housing to go around and family support programs that are effective.

The need for change

It has been just over a fortnight since Kumanjayi Little Baby's small body was found on the outskirts of Alice Springs.

It is hard to overstate how raw the pain that everyone who joined or followed the search for her is still carrying — undoubtedly none more so than her family.

The CLP's amendments have been welcomed by NT CLP senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, aunt to Kumanjayi, who wept while demanding change in federal parliament this week.

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Minister Robyn Cahill — the only member of the government to front the media this week — said she would not be stopped by those "invested in maintaining the status quo".

But it would be a grave mistake to suggest or think that critics of the government's approach don't want a better system or are not concerned about child safety.

The minister has allowed an impression that these amendments could have made a difference in Kumanjayi Little Baby's case but has not explained how, citing legal restrictions preventing discussion of child protection notifications.

Cahill has been at pains to stress that she wants to see families supported to stay together, pointing to a new proposed requirement for caseworkers to take "proactive steps" to that effect.

Whether the stroke of a pen will ensure that happens — as opposed to sufficient caseworker numbers, for one — will likely be addressed in the submissions that over-stretched frontline services scramble to prepare by next Friday.