“Child-protection systems too often misinterpret or underestimate the strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of raising children and kinship networks,” writes indigenous advocate JULIE TONGS.

SNAICC, the national voice for Aboriginal children, has released its Family Matters Report for 2025. 

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the report details a litany of failures by the ACT government to meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in Canberra.

The 2025 report is about 150 pages and does not make for easy or comfortable reading. 

Below are a range of extracts from the report that give some indication of the troubling nature and range of findings detailed in the report. Notably, this is reflected in its opening sentence, in which the authors assert: “There is a growing and unacceptable gap between the rhetoric of reform and the reality on the ground for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.” 

The following sample of findings from the report provide an insight into the myriad failings which have been identified within the ACT.

“The Family Matters Report 2025 presents and interprets data related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children and families from our perspective, challenging government interpretations and systemic biases. It calls out the over-reliance on punitive responses, the chronic underfunding of prevention and early intervention and the failure to uphold the rights of children.”

For example, Building Block 1 is universal and targeted services, and the ACT is reported as having the “highest rate of Aboriginal children in Australia continuously in out-of-home care (OOHC) for five or more years (58.4 per cent).” The ACT also has the second highest rate ratio of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Isalnder children in OOHC (17.7 per 1000).

A further illustration of the blasé approach of the ACT government is that the ACT has the third highest rate in Australia of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.

Concerningly, the latest data reveals that while nationally 7.3 per cent of Aboriginal children were reunified compared to 10.1 per cent of non-indigenous children, the reunification rate in the ACT for Aboriginal children was a mere 3.3 per cent which is the second lowest rate in Australia.

The ACT, in 2022-23 also had the second highest rate of Aboriginal children in Australia receiving child-protection services. The ACT did not provide the relevant data for 2023-24, which raises the obvious question: “What are they trying to hide?”

 “In 2024, the over representation of Aboriginal children slightly increased across substantiations, care and protection orders and in OOHC,” the report says.

A substantiation refers to a case where a departmental investigation concludes that a child has been or is at risk of maltreatment and necessitates further action by the government.

The most deeply concerning finding detailed in the report is that rates of substantiation have fallen across Aboriginal and non-indigenous population groups with sharp decreases in the NT, NSW, Vic, WA and Tasmania. 

However, in the ACT, there was a sharp decrease in substantiations for non-indigenous children (40 per cent) but a massive 59 per cent increase in substantiations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. How is one to interpret this disparity?

“Over-representation in substantiations was particularly high in the ACT where Aboriginal children were 19.8 times more likely to be subject to a substantiation than non-indigenous children,” Family Matters says. 

“The continuing over-representation reflects deeply embedded patterns of systemic bias that are built into the structures, policies and practices of child protection systems.”

It also found that: “Notification rates are potentially a useful indicator of potential areas of concern; however, they may also reflect the perceptions and biases of those making the notification. 

“The rate of notification per 1000, in 2023-24 of Aboriginal children in the ACT was 343.6, an increase of 8 per cent on 2022-23 while the rate of notification of non-Aboriginal children per 1000 was 48, a decrease of 5 per cent. 

“Alongside genuine concerns over surveillance and misunderstanding and undervaluing of Aboriginal parenting practices are key drivers of higher rates of notification.”

In the ACT, school personnel were the highest source of child protection notifications highlighting the role schools play in reporting concerns for Aboriginal children.

Family Matters expresses concern that the high notification rates through ACT schools may indicate that these services are relying on child-protection notifications as an early and primary response for families experiencing challenges rather than providing wraparound supports to address family issues that, if supported, could prevent the need for child protection escalations.

The report notes that disproportionate rates of investigations can be linked to greater levels of harm experienced in communities facing entrenched socioeconomic disadvantage because of historical and ongoing impacts of colonisation, intergenerational trauma, poverty and limited access to culturally safe services.

The report concludes, unsurprisingly, that the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander children is also attributable to entrenched systemic biases against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and that child-protection systems too often misinterpret or underestimate the strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of raising children and kinship networks.

Julie Tongs is CEO of the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services.