If the Northern Territory Government really cares about children, it has an interesting way of showing it.
This week, the Country Liberal Party (CLP)-led parliamentary committee ignored evidence and expert advice and recommended controversial child protection laws be passed. This, despite 120 of the 150 submissions calling for the legislation to either be scrapped or substantially amended.
Among the very few groups to support the reforms were the NT Police Association and a conservative Christian organisation. That was apparently enough for the committee to conclude there were no significant issues with the bill.
There rarely are when you are the party that wrote it.
View this post on Instagram
The recommendation prompted the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner, Shahleena Musk — an eminently qualified lawyer and Larrakia woman — to resign, having seemingly tired of successive governments in the Top End thumbing their nose at anyone who does not entirely agree with government talking points.
And why would she stay? She has tried and tried. Reports and statements; visiting children in prison and in the community; speaking and advocating on their behalf. And to what end?
No one has said the child protection system in the NT is working. No one. The opposite is true — everyone knows this. It is just the overwhelming majority of experts say the new reforms will make it even worse — especially for Indigenous children.
Only 17 per cent of First Nations children aged 0-17 in out-of-home care in the NT were placed with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relative or kin — the lowest rate in the country. Knee-jerk responses seemingly designed to appease racist comments sections on social media forums will improve nothing.
The government has dismissed virtually every expert who has offered advice, treating them as little more than an inconvenience.
In response to Ms Musk's scathing resignation — in which she condemned a lack of governance, transparency and a refusal to listen to those more qualified than politicians on matters of child safety — Minister for Child Protection Robyn Cahill delivered a remarkably juvenile response.
She argued that if the woman who cried during the committee hearing over the plight of young Indigenous children in the Northern Territory "will not put children's safety ahead of everything else, then it is right that they move on".
"If Ms Musk were genuinely concerned about this, then the last thing she would be doing is walking away," Ms Cahill said in a statement. "My focus has never wavered. Every Territory child deserves to be safe, and that is the test I apply to every decision I make."
View this post on Instagram
This is from a minister who multiple legal groups have accused of entirely misunderstanding the legislation she is meant to oversee, and who, despite the former commissioner issuing multiple reports, warnings and first-hand testimony from Indigenous children over her tenure, said of Ms Musk last month: "So now we know the children's commissioner has two speeds: Do nothing and knee jerk."
It's also an interesting proposition from a minister whose government came to power in 2024, looked at a broken system, and concluded the best response was to imprison more children — the majority of whom are living with profound trauma, disability or both.
This is a government that heard the advice of doctors, lawyers, human rights experts and Aboriginal community leaders, and ignored them all to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10.
This is a government that read the findings of the Don Dale Royal Commission and decided spit hoods should once again be placed on children in detention — despite repeated warnings they can constitute torture and can lead to death. When 45 paediatricians wrote to Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro last year warning the policy risked child asphyxiation, she responded that they had "wasted their time".
If that is a government putting child safety first, then child safety has acquired an entirely new definition.
The National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Sue-Anne Hunter, said Ms Musk's inability to carry out her legislated role effectively "shows first-hand the lack of care and accountability they [the NT Government] have towards our people".
"These circumstances are dire. There is no other way to put it," Commissioner Hunter said.
View this post on Instagram
The federal government could, of course, do something.
Instead, it has spent countless hours preparing briefing notes explaining why it cannot implement Australia's human rights obligations — despite legal advice suggesting it can — and raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.
The CLP Government's disregard for child protection experts, lawyers, human rights bodies, land councils and, more importantly, children themselves is matched only by the Albanese Government's willingness to look the other way.
Petrified of provoking a political fight, the Prime Minister has preferred to avoid confrontation, finding time for podcast appearances while declining to hold any state or territory to account for their failure to close the gap.
The result is that a passionate, courageous and independent advocate for Indigenous children has resigned from her position in a jurisdiction where too many people appear more comfortable seeing Aboriginal children behind bars or beneath a spit hood than listening to the experts trying to keep them safe.
It will not meaningfully affect the government. As one of the characters in the political satire The Hollowmen observed, if a decision is going to hurt people, it helps if those people cannot vote.
The only people it will affect are those in this country who have the least power, the quietest voices, and the greatest need for someone willing to speak on their behalf.
As Commissioner Hunter said on Friday: "Our governments are failing us; this is evident now more than ever in the NT. Our children are the ones dealing with the consequences. We need systemic reform, and we need our governments to listen to us."
