The actions of the Northern Territory government in the wake of the horrific death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby reveal both a disregard for expert advice and a preference for culture war politics over systemic reform.
The death of the young girl shocked the country, prompting serious questions about everything from the conditions in her town camp outside Mparntwe / Alice Springs to the justice system and its intersection with family violence.
Yet despite urgent warnings from experts — including child commissioners and peak Indigenous family advocacy bodies — the NT Government has continued with its year-long push to significantly alter the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP).
The principle itself is straightforward. It is designed to protect children while ensuring those removed by the government maintain connections to family, community and culture — connections that previous generations were deliberately denied through government policy.
Despite the importance of the principle, data shows only 17.5 per cent of Indigenous 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.
On Wednesday, the Finocchiaro government confirmed the changes would be introduced to the Territory's unicameral parliament, for which they have a massive majority—effectively guaranteeing their passage.
"Under the sweeping reform, a new Universal Principle for the first time lists child safety as the primary consideration, placing the best interests of every child first regardless of background," a government statement said.
"The sweeping reform includes additional requirements for Aboriginal children conditional upon the Universal Principle being met."
It is a policy direction Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill has long advocated for, despite the existing Care and Protection of Children Act already clearly stating its purpose is to "promote the wellbeing of children, including: to protect children from harm and exploitation...".
The legislation is even more explicit elsewhere: "When a decision involving a child is made, the best interests of the child are the paramount concern."
The government is well aware of this. Over the past week, lawyers and human rights experts have repeatedly pointed to the legislation's clarity and warned about the consequences of weakening it.
As National Indigenous Child Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter wrote this week, the principle exists because the forced removal of First Nations children from family, community and Country caused intergenerational harm that Australia is still reckoning with.
SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle was even more direct.
"The Child Placement Principle is not red tape, it is a safety framework built on decades of evidence, designed to keep Aboriginal children connected to family, culture and community, and to ensure the mistakes of the past are never repeated."
Interestingly, Sky News has indicated the NT Government will rely on Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as justification for the reforms.
The article states that "parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status".
Yet the convention is one the Finocchiaro government has repeatedly ignored in other contexts.
When the government lowered the age of criminal responsibility back to 10, it appeared to disregard Article 40, which calls for a minimum age consistent with international standards.
With a significant majority of children incarcerated in the NT living with cognitive disabilities — many under the age of 14 — the government is clearly failing to meet Article 23, which states a "mentally or physically disabled child should enjoy a full and decent life, in conditions which ensure dignity, promote self-reliance and facilitate the child's active participation in the community".
Likewise, the reintroduction of spit hoods into youth detention settings, despite explicit recommendations from the Don Dale Royal Commission, and the continued use of solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day, stand in stark contrast to Article 37, which states: "No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."
There is little doubt the child protection system — along with multiple other government departments — requires deep reform and rigorous inquiry led by experts and affected communities.
The death of Kumanjayi Little Baby was a horrific tragedy that exposed the intersection of poverty, family violence, policing and the justice system in the Northern Territory. The NT Government understands this. Yet rather than pursuing structural reform, it has again turned to a culture war argument that risks further demonising some of the country's most vulnerable children and families under the guise of protecting them.
