The Queensland Government's failure to report child protection data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care has been labelled negligent and deeply concerning by the national peak body for Indigenous children and young people.

Last week's Report on Government Services (RoGS) showed all child protection data for Indigenous children in Queensland for 2024-25 is missing, despite the state having one of the largest Indigenous youth populations in the country.

Overall, the RoGS showed government expenditure on child protection services was around $11.3 billion, a real increase of 4.1 per cent from 2023-24.

However, it was the missing data on child protection under the Queensland tab for the 2024-25 financial year which has seen advocates in a fury.

SNAICC - National Voice for our Children CEO, Catherine Liddle, described the absence of information from Queensland's Department of Families, Seniors, Disability Services and Child Safety — including the number of children in out-of-home care — as "inconceivable".

She questioned how the Department "can reach a point where it cannot say how many children were in its care or what their experience of that system was when they are responsible for those children and their safety".

"Due to the high population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in QLD, we're deeply concerned about maintaining consistency and transparency when it comes to the number and outcomes of children entering QLD's child protection system," Ms Liddle said.

In response to questions posed by National Indigenous Times, a spokesperson for the Department said it had implemented a new client information system, Unify, in 2025. Due to the transition, it was unable to include 2024-25 data in the 2026 RoGS.

"This is a temporary situation. The relevant Australian Government agencies were made aware, and the Queensland Government has asked that the data be included once it is available," the spokesperson said.

They said when NSW introduced a new client management system in 2017-18, the state was "unable to report data for a range of statistics — up to two years for some measures".

"Data about individual children, young people and their families has not been affected by the introduction of Unify and remains available in our system to inform the work of frontline child safety staff," the spokesperson said.

At the end of June 2024 there were 4,961 Indigenous children in out-of-home care in Queensland — a rate of 42.9 per 1,000 children. That figure is 9.3 times the rate for non-Indigenous children, though below the national average of 50.3 per 1,000 Indigenous children.

Ms Liddle said ongoing IT failures across the state's child protection system were not merely administrative problems, arguing "they've created critical gaps in national data that will distort the picture for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care for years to come".

"The QLD department have dropped the ball on this one, and our children will end up paying the price," she said.

Target 12 of the Closing the Gap agreement aims to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care. Ms Liddle said the missing data undermines both that target and SNAICC's Family Matters Report, described as Australia's only annual Indigenous-led report tracking the removal of children from their families and assessing government responses.

SNAICC has called on the Department to explain how it will address the data gaps.

"Queensland's data feeds directly into national accountability mechanisms. When that data is missing, transparency is lost," Ms Liddle said.

"Each missing data point represents a child's life and lived experience. Those stories deserve to be counted in the national conversation about out-of-home care."

Last year, the Queensland government said the severe over-representation of Indigenous children in OOHC would be a central focus of a major inquiry into the state's "broken" child safety system.

The $20 million commission of inquiry, led by former Federal Court judge Paul Anastassiou KC, is examining the harm caused by the system.

"It is very clear that children and young people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are grossly over-represented in the child-protection system," Mr Anastassiou said last year.

The inquiry is also investigating why around 800 children in state care have begun to "self-place" — leaving their foster, kinship or residential care arrangements.

Many have reportedly been left couch-surfing or sleeping rough, or have returned to family environments where they face a heightened risk of abuse or neglect.