SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SMALL BUSINESS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR SKILLS AND TRAINING
SENATOR FOR THE NORTHERN TERRITORY

STATEMENT

NT CHILD PROTECTION LAWS

It is extraordinary that governments presiding over the continued failure of child protection systems across Australia now seek to lecture the Northern Territory about protecting vulnerable Aboriginal children.

For decades, governments have defended the same policies, repeated the same slogans and reaffirmed the same principles while Aboriginal children have remained catastrophically overrepresented in abuse, neglect and out-of-home care.

Their joint statement demands continued adherence to the existing framework, but offers no serious answer as to why that framework has failed to keep so many children safe.

The NT’s Every Child Matters Bill does not erase family, kinship, community or culture. It makes clear that these considerations cannot be used to justify leaving a child in danger, returning a child to danger or delaying intervention while adults debate process.

A child’s safety must come first. That should never have become controversial.

For too long, governments and institutions have been more concerned about offending activists, organisations and bureaucracies than confronting the reality facing vulnerable children.

They have protected systems from criticism while children have continued to suffer.

They have defended ideology while families have buried children.

The Northern Territory has endured inquiry after inquiry, review after review and promise after promise, yet too many Aboriginal children remain exposed to violence, abuse, neglect and instability.

Safety and cultural connection are not mutually exclusive. Every child deserves both. But culture must never become an excuse for inaction, and no child should be sacrificed to preserve a policy framework that is plainly failing.

The jurisdictions signing this statement are entitled to defend the status quo, but they should first explain the outcomes produced under their watch.

If the current approach is working, why are so many Aboriginal children still unsafe?

That is the question their joint statement avoids, because the answer exposes the failure of the system they are defending.

ENDS