2024-06-06
The Audit Office has this week released two reports exposing the shortcomings of the Child Protection System in New South Wales, Safeguarding the rights of Aboriginal children in the child protection system and Oversight of the child protection system .
Oversight of the child protection system describes the DCJ’s approach to child protection as ‘inefficient, ineffective, and unsustainable.’ The DCJ has, the report says, ‘failed to make the necessary changes to ensure its child protection service model meets the needs of children and families.’
Safeguarding the rights of Aboriginal children in the child protection system is similarly critical and, disturbingly, says the DCJ has ‘effectively abandoned’ strategies designed to protect First Nations children and their families.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Justice, Sue Higginson says: “Heartbreakingly, there is nothing new in these reports. We have known for years the way the DCJ is failing our most vulnerable children, especially First Nations children,
“The child protection system is a violent and wasteful machine that tears apart families, hurts children, and funnels billions of dollars of public money to totally unaccountable third-parties,
“It has been five years since Professor Megan Davis tabled her comprehensive Family is Culture report. It is a roadmap to reform the harmful system separating First Nations families on an industrial scale. Both major parties recognised in parliament the importance of its recommendations, but no government has taken serious action since its publication,
“There are no more alibis. We have wasted too much time. There have been too many damning reviews and neglected recommendations, and the Auditor General refers to most of them,
“The Minister knows full well the extent of the problems in the child and family support system, and she is morally and legally responsible for every child trapped within it. The government needs to stop crying poor about the mess they’ve inherited and show real leadership for the sake of our children,’ Ms Higginson said.