Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I spend much of my time as the member for Grey being concerned about and involved in trying to improve the lot of our Indigenous community, spread throughout both urban and remote parts of the electorate. I was able to attend, a couple of evenings ago, a presentation by Dr Jeremy Sammut from the Centre for Independent Studies on his study into the safety and rights of Aboriginal children from dysfunctional households. It is called The kinship conundrum: the impact of Aboriginal self-determination on Indigenous child protection. I thought I would bring this to the parliament's attention because it was only a couple of weeks ago that we were dealing with the Closing the gap report. This study is a very sobering one indeed. Dr Sammut's report is a sobering read which goes to the heart of a number of sacred cows and shines a spotlight on the victims: the children. To use another cliche, they are the sacrificial lambs in this process.

As in all good discussion papers, Dr Sammut challenges us to analytically think about the real effects and causes of many of the current problems within our Indigenous community, about the disconnection and the lives that are destroyed in so many ways, often at a young age.

In a nutshell, he says there are more than 40,000 Australian children in out-of-home care, and the majority of them are Indigenous. Of that number, almost 48 per cent or in kinship arrangements. That is where they are placed with family or, in the case of remote communities, if family does not exist, perhaps with someone else within the community. Forty-two per cent are in home-based foster care. In speaking about those who provide kinship care and home-based foster care, let me say I know some of those families, and most of them do their utmost, and I thank them for the effort that they put into this. But in some cases, unfortunately, like anywhere, there are failures.

It is very important to understand that some years ago our state-based departments of family and child care turned their backs, and I guess the whole nation did, on residential care for these young people, and for good reasons. There are many things that have gone wrong in the past. We carry the burden of the policies that led to the stolen generation and we are doing our very best to try and right the wrongs that have been done in the past. So, by 2004, the number of children in residential care had fallen to less than 1,000. But by 2013, it had got back up to over 2,100, despite the fact that we had turned our backs on residential care.

Dr Sammut explains that the reason for this crisis is that so often the kinship arrangements, in particular, and the foster-care arrangements are a failure, and the children are stuck in a revolving door. And the family courts are very keen to send these children back to their families. In fact, Dr Sammut makes the point that they are probably too keen, because the children are getting sent back to dysfunctional homes. If they spend two or three years in a dysfunctional home—if they are scared, if there is violence, if they are being violated—there is a fair chance their life is ruined. Really, we have to challenge ourselves and ask whether we are dealing with this in the correct manner.

Dr Sammut says that he believes there are times when children, for their own good, need to be completely removed from those families and for the families to give up their rights. I have no sympathy for the family that abuses their children, none at all. We should be totally focused on the outcomes for the child. Dr Sammut suggests we should be looking at higher adoption rates in Australia so that we can give these children permanent, loving homes. This will challenge all of us. I am challenged by it. But I think that, in a place like this parliament, we really need to talk about these issues and give them proper consideration, adult consideration. We should not make partisan arguments but talk about what we are trying to do to improve these children's lives.

I am currently a member of the House Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs. We have spent 18 months on an inquiry into the impacts of alcohol and other drugs on Indigenous communities. Let me say that, if a child is brought up in a terrible, terrible place, there is a fair chance they will turn to drugs and alcohol at a very young age, and destroy their lives.