Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak to this motion. I certainly endorse the comments made by Senator Gallagher and Senator Pratt. Since being elected to the Senate, I have had the privilege—as you have too, Acting Deputy President Sterle—of meeting with many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations across this country. I commend Senator Hinch for raising the issue of children in out-of-home care, but, like Senator Gallagher and Senator Pratt, I have some reservations about the focus of the motion.

In speaking to this motion, I particularly want to focus on what is happening to children in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities because they comprise more than 50 per cent of the children in out-of-home care. As you would be aware, Acting Deputy President Sterle, in our home state of Western Australia, the rate of out-of-home care amongst Aboriginal children is out of control. Sadly, it is an area where Western Australia leads the pack. The stats in Western Australia are 16 per cent higher. As Acting Deputy President Sterle and Senator Dodson would know, in the Kimberley region every child currently in out-of-home care is an Aboriginal child. That tells us that there is a crisis. As Senator Gallagher said, this is not an easy issue to deal with and it is not one size fits all. Through my association with SNAICC and other organisations, I have become aware that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations really are solution focused. They really are starting to come together, and in many ways they are leading us. Whilst I accept there is never going to be a one-size-fits-all model, I do think that we urgently need to sit down with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and hear what they have to say.

On 9 November in this place, Family Matters—an umbrella group of 150 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations that have come together to look at and try to address this issue of out-of-home care—launched their inaugural report called The Family Matters report: measuring trends to turn the tide on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child safety and removal. It has some shocking statistics in it. Rather than dwell on those statistics, they want to move from a deficit model, which governments seem to apply to fixing problems, to look at how we make our communities stronger and how we make families stronger. The report makes some alarming predictions. The report says that, if we do not do anything different, in the next two decades we will triple the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in care. Across Australia, there are already 15,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are missing from their homes. They are missing out on their mum, their dad, their grannies, their brothers, their sisters, their aunts, their uncles and, even more importantly, their culture. It is almost as if we are creating another stolen generation because these kids are missing out.

The report also makes the point that we invest a lot of money into out-of-home care—as we should—because for some children one of the solutions is certainly to get them away from harm in the first instance, but we do not spend enough money on making our communities stronger and on supporting parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles or whoever has responsibility for those children. That is also where we need to focus our resources. If we make families stronger, then we make outcomes for children much better. I do not think any of us in this place would disagree with the fundamental principle that children are best cared for in their own families. So what is at that we as a community, and governments both federal and state, need to do to make sure families are strong and children are able to stay within their own families and, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids, within their own culture?

One of the other groups I have had a bit to do with is prisoner groups. In Western Australia, I have met with a number of organisations. Barry Winmar is running training for Aboriginal prisoners—in particular, Noongar prisoners from the Perth region—out at Fairbridge. He tells me over and over again about the number of young Noongar men who come to him for training who have no idea of their culture. We know now that there is a very strong link between kids in out-of-home care and future prison sentences—they commit crimes and end up incarcerated. It seems to me that if we put the support back to families, and start to strengthen families, significant numbers of those kids will not end up in care. One of the very first things that Barry does is get the elders in and start to talk about culture—because these young men know nothing about where they have come from, their connection to country and so on.

The Family Matters report, which was launched here on 11 November, says we need a COAG response. I appreciate Senator Gallagher's remarks. She said the Commonwealth government does not want to be part of this, because it is probably one of the most difficult issues that state governments deal with. But we do need a nationally coordinated response because we owe it to kids, to future generations, to get this right—and it starts with getting it right in families, in people's homes.

In Western Australia we have a mix of services. I am not aware that we have any private for-profit carers in Western Australia. Certainly, the non-government sector in WA is taking a lot of children from the state system. Just recently, Stephan Lund, from Wanslea Family Services, which has been around for a very long time, attributed the increase in children in care to having more mandatory reporting regimes and a better recognition of family violence, domestic violence—and, of course, we have drug and alcohol problems. Mr Lund spoke about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. He said they find it particularly tough because they lose contact with not only family but culture. Of Wanslea's 108 foster families, only two are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. There are a whole range of reasons why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families may not be able to put themselves forward as foster families. They are often struggling with poverty themselves. They are often dealing in an informal manner with other children in the family. In Western Australia in particular—but not isolated to Western Australia—there is the issue of the trauma and dislocation of Aboriginal people not that many generations back. So it is difficult to encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to come forward and be foster families.

Many times—and I have spoken to women in these circumstances—the grandparents take the children. But they do so in an informal manner because they do not want to butt up against the welfare system. In Western Australia we have a very high rate of custody orders being given out until children are 18. Putting on my cynical hat, I think that is a way for the Western Australian government to get them off the books and out of home care so that they can say they are reducing the numbers. But that is not a good outcome. And now we are seeing the family law centres intervening on more and more occasions to try and prevent those care orders for young children to the age of 18—because that is completely ripping them away from family members, their culture and so on.

Two advocates in Western Australia told me just a couple of weeks ago about two Aboriginal children who were placed in long-term care until the age of 18 and then taken to the US—so, complete dislocation from family and friends. In defence of caseworkers we know in Western Australia—and I am sure this is not isolated to Western Australia—they have far too many children to deal with and far too many families that they are responsible for. They too are overloaded. If you have a look at what is written, Western Australia has good protocols and good actions to be taken for children—in particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being kept in touch with their culture.

But all of that falls by the wayside when the caseworker is overworked or, as Senator Gallagher reminded us, has very difficult issues to deal with—and we have seen some of those tragedies hit the headlines in Western Australia. As Senator Pratt pointed out, it always leads to another review. So with the greatest of respect, Senator Hinch, I do not think we need another review; I think we need action. If you did not attend the launch of the report on 11 November, I would urge you to have a look at Family Matters. Ultimately, it is about all of us wanting children to be kept with family and to be kept safe. Family is the best place for children. I sat as a member of the community services inquiry a couple of years ago and heard firsthand from three young women who had been in foster care all their lives. That is a memory that has stayed with me—hearing the horror stories they told of what had happened to them.

Debate interrupted.