As the Family Matters’ National Week of Action draws to a close on 20 May, PeakCare congratulates SNAICC, the campaign organisers and all who have contributed to this well-planned and inspiring event.
PeakCare also commends our Member agencies, colleagues and friends who have promoted the campaign messages throughout the week, signed the Family Matters pledge and publicly declared their organisation’s support by signing the Family Matters Statement of Commitment.
On 28 June 2012, shortly before the commencement of the Carmody Child Protection Commission of Inquiry, the Courier Mail’s Marg Wenham reported:
There are probably other similar or greater indicators of indigenous disadvantage or disconnect from the high and pleasant standard of living enjoyed by the majority of Australians.
But the spiralling number of indigenous children being taken into care is a standout. The suggestion by PeakCare’s Lindsay Wegener that this issue could form the basis of an inquiry in its own right should be given serious consideration, if it is not going to form a considerable part of the LNP’s forthcoming review of the child protection sector.
Currently almost 40 per cent of children removed from their families following statutory intervention by child safety officers are indigenous, even though they comprise only 6 per cent of the population of 0-17 year olds in Queensland. In 2003-04, at the time of the Crime and Misconduct Commission’s inquiry into foster care, the rate of removal for indigenous children was 15.8 per 1000. It is now 43.6.
The CMC’s recommendations were silent on the issue of indigenous over-representation. This was a reprehensible oversight.
Clearly the changes to Queensland’s child protection system, made in the wake of the CMC inquiry, have boosted the skew towards statutory intervention and removal rather than early intervention and family support and this has impacted disproportionately and terribly on indigenous children and families. (Courier Mail, 28 June 2012).
Since this article’s publication, the disproportionate representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families has worsened. If this is not turned around, it most assuredly should become the subject of the next Queensland child protection inquiry. This is fast becoming a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ this should occur. And if and when it does, we should all be held to account for our actions or inaction in righting this terrible wrong. As stated by Natalie Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak and Co-Chair of Family Matters, “We need to do something today, or the burden of saying sorry again will be ours”.
Now is not the time for either apathy or despondency in meeting our responsibilities as agents of change and the Family Matters initiative gives us cause for optimism and an impressively sophisticated and constructive vehicle for effecting the changes we are seeking.
PeakCare commends the Queensland Government for its declared support of Family Matters – the first state government to do so – and eagerly awaits release of the Government’s own action plan that reportedly will be informed by and supportive of the principles and four ‘building blocks’ described within the Family Matters Report.
Family Matters’ National Week of Action is now drawing to a close, but the Family Matters Campaign lives on!
Click here to take the Family Matters pledge.
Click here to access and sign the Family Matters Statement of Commitment.