❓ Ms Freeman asks about the government's approach to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care. The Minister outlines investments in early intervention programs and partnerships with Aboriginal organisations.
AnsweredQoN 754Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
ABORIGINAL CHILDREN IN
CARE
754. Ms J.M. FREEMAN to the Minister for Child Protection:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's priority of improving the
wellbeing of Aboriginal Western Australians. Can the minister outline to
the house how this government is working in partnership with Aboriginal
families and communities to address the issue of Aboriginal children coming
into care?
CARE
754. Ms J.M. FREEMAN to the Minister for Child Protection:
I
refer to the McGowan Labor government's priority of improving the
wellbeing of Aboriginal Western Australians. Can the minister outline to
the house how this government is working in partnership with Aboriginal
families and communities to address the issue of Aboriginal children coming
into care?
AnswerView source ↗
I
thank the member for that very important question. I hope members would be
aware that it is Child Protection Week this week, and it is important.
Unfortunately, child protection gets attention by the community when something
goes wrong, when there is a bad-news story, but I know that most of the time
throughout the rest of the year, our department, our partners in caring for
children in care and their families, are doing a lot of very good work out
there supporting some of the most vulnerable in our community. The theme for
National Child Protection Week is Walking Together. That is very fitting. We
have an enormous challenge when 55 per cent of children in care are Aboriginal.
We need to do a lot better first of all in preventing children coming into
care. This government has invested record amounts in early intervention for
vulnerable families. Specifically, $97 million has been allocated in a number
of different programs, but essentially working with families who are under
stress and continue to partner with them to try to prevent those children from
coming into care and to get those families safe and healthy. Since that money
has been allocated, we have been working with 2 383 families and over 5 200
children. That is a large number throughout our state. A number of those
contracts have been given to Aboriginal-controlled organisations. For the first
time that early intervention work has the widest reach that it has ever had in
our state.
Importantly, we announced this week
that we would partner with an organisation called the Secretariat of National
Aboriginal and Islander Child Care—SNAICC. It is the peak advocacy body
for Aboriginal children in care. We need to build up the capacity of
Aboriginal-controlled organisations in our state to work with the department
and with families to better protect children
and to work at some of the issues that are causing children to be at risk. We will work with SNAICC to make sure that throughout our state, we have good,
robust systems in place for Aboriginal-controlled
community organisations to step up and do more of this work. We have given them
a lot of that early intervention work, and they are doing some child protection
work, but we need to do that a lot more. It was a significant announcement that
we will work with SNAICC to do that work. Of course, all this is also underpinned
by our priorities in government and our whole-of-government targets to improve
Aboriginal wellbeing. It is important that we hold ourselves to account by a whole-of-government
target to drive change across agencies. I am very proud of those targets across
government. In addition, we are doing a lot of work to try to prevent the sort
of stresses that have seen children come into care—for instance, family
and domestic violence, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, housing stress and the like. They are the
sort of issues that we are also tackling, in partnership with the community.
There is always a lot of work to do
in child protection. It is a very challenging area, as I said, with some of the state's most vulnerable families. I am
very proud of the work the Department of Communities is doing. We are doing that completely in lock step with community organisations, particularly
Aboriginal-controlled organisations, to get better outcomes.
The SPEAKER : Minister for
Sport and Recreation, I call you to order for the second time for your mobile
phone, and then you threw it on the ground. If it happens again, I will get you
to table it for the rest of the day.
thank the member for that very important question. I hope members would be
aware that it is Child Protection Week this week, and it is important.
Unfortunately, child protection gets attention by the community when something
goes wrong, when there is a bad-news story, but I know that most of the time
throughout the rest of the year, our department, our partners in caring for
children in care and their families, are doing a lot of very good work out
there supporting some of the most vulnerable in our community. The theme for
National Child Protection Week is Walking Together. That is very fitting. We
have an enormous challenge when 55 per cent of children in care are Aboriginal.
We need to do a lot better first of all in preventing children coming into
care. This government has invested record amounts in early intervention for
vulnerable families. Specifically, $97 million has been allocated in a number
of different programs, but essentially working with families who are under
stress and continue to partner with them to try to prevent those children from
coming into care and to get those families safe and healthy. Since that money
has been allocated, we have been working with 2 383 families and over 5 200
children. That is a large number throughout our state. A number of those
contracts have been given to Aboriginal-controlled organisations. For the first
time that early intervention work has the widest reach that it has ever had in
our state.
Importantly, we announced this week
that we would partner with an organisation called the Secretariat of National
Aboriginal and Islander Child Care—SNAICC. It is the peak advocacy body
for Aboriginal children in care. We need to build up the capacity of
Aboriginal-controlled organisations in our state to work with the department
and with families to better protect children
and to work at some of the issues that are causing children to be at risk. We will work with SNAICC to make sure that throughout our state, we have good,
robust systems in place for Aboriginal-controlled
community organisations to step up and do more of this work. We have given them
a lot of that early intervention work, and they are doing some child protection
work, but we need to do that a lot more. It was a significant announcement that
we will work with SNAICC to do that work. Of course, all this is also underpinned
by our priorities in government and our whole-of-government targets to improve
Aboriginal wellbeing. It is important that we hold ourselves to account by a whole-of-government
target to drive change across agencies. I am very proud of those targets across
government. In addition, we are doing a lot of work to try to prevent the sort
of stresses that have seen children come into care—for instance, family
and domestic violence, mental health issues, drug and alcohol abuse, housing stress and the like. They are the
sort of issues that we are also tackling, in partnership with the community.
There is always a lot of work to do
in child protection. It is a very challenging area, as I said, with some of the state's most vulnerable families. I am
very proud of the work the Department of Communities is doing. We are doing that completely in lock step with community organisations, particularly
Aboriginal-controlled organisations, to get better outcomes.
The SPEAKER : Minister for
Sport and Recreation, I call you to order for the second time for your mobile
phone, and then you threw it on the ground. If it happens again, I will get you
to table it for the rest of the day.
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