A confidential report into Northern Territory’s Family and Children’s Services says placing Aboriginal children with Aboriginal families is being given priority over child safety.
The Territory Government has suppressed some details of the 2007 Bath Report, which describes a child protection system in crisis.
One of the main issues is the use of unassessed and under-qualified carers to look after children.
The report, which was obtained by The Australian newspaper, says placing Aboriginal children with a relative or an Aboriginal family is seen as more important than safety considerations.
“In some cases this principal appears to be given primacy over basic child protection considerations,” the report states.
The report details several cases where children were left in sub-standard care, including one where a two-year-old boy suffered serious burns while with his carer.
The Child Protection Minister yesterday said that child safety must come first, but admitted the system still has serious problems.
The Government says parts of the report need to remain confidential.
The Opposition’s child protection spokeswoman, Jodeen Carney, says the Government is holding back to avoid scrutiny.
“We will get the report, we will examine it and we will question Government on it,” she said.
“It’s very clear from the Government’s conduct that it does not want to be questioned or scrutinised or challenged in any way.
“Well it has been caught out and things are not all well in the Territory’s child protection system as Government would want us to believe.”
Ombudsman Carolyn Richards has launched her own investigation into complaints about child protection and she says not much has changed.
“The complaints I’ve received date from 2009, most of them between April and November 2009, and they’re relating exactly the same thing happening to other children,” she said.
“What concerns me is that even though the Government has put in a huge amount of money into child protection services there doesn’t seem to be any change in what’s happening to children.”
The Child Protection Minister, Kon Vatskalis, says the Government is making improvements and will do more after another inquiry into the system later this year.
“We have to actually start doing things differently,” he said.
“We have to see … have we got carers here in the Territory, because we’ve got transient population?
“Is the way we operate the best way?”