Controversial child protection laws in the Northern Territory have been criticised by the federal minister responsible for Indigenous Australians, who argues they will only increase distrust between First Nations people and the Territory Government.
On Tuesday, the Country Liberal Party (CLP) tabled its child protection legislation, which will remove the legal enforceability of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP) so that it applies only "as far as practicable", while also capping protection orders at two years in favour of permanency placements.
Despite 120 of the 150 submissions to a parliamentary inquiry examining the legislation calling for it to be scrapped or substantially amended, the CLP-led committee recommended the laws be passed with only minor amendments.
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In a joint statement, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy and Labor's envoy for remote communities Marion Scrymgour said, "Decades of work have been spent gathering evidence on what works and what doesn't in child protection".
"The dramatic overhaul of the NT child protection system is occurring without proper consultation and against the advice of child protection experts, doctors, pediatricians, frontline workers, and Aboriginal organisations working at the coalface," they said.
"It serves only to intensify the distrust and division between First Nations families and the CLP government."
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On Monday, National Indigenous Times reported Northern Territory and Queensland child protection ministers Robyn Cahill and Amanda Camm did not sign a statement — endorsed by every other child protection minister in Australia — affirming that implementation of the ATSICPP is "entirely consistent with child safety".
Introduced in the wake of the Bringing Them Home report, the principle is designed to ensure children removed from their families maintain connections to family, community and culture.
Ms Cahill did not respond to questions from National Indigenous Times asking whether she supports the ATSICPP or its benefits for Aboriginal children, and why she did not sign the statement. However, on Tuesday she criticised other states and territories, arguing, "Here in the Territory, we have one goal, and that is to keep our children safe".
Senator McCarthy and Ms Scrymgour said the ATSICPP is "based on evidence and partnership, and should not be disregarded".
"We continue to live with the intergenerational trauma of a historic child protection system that didn't work," she said. "These laws should not repeat that trauma."
While protests by Aboriginal and community leaders took place outside Parliament, Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said no one in the NT believed the system was working as it should.
"We are putting the right of a child to be safe first, and above all else," she said. "We know we've upset people in the process but it was the right thing to do."
On the same day the bill was introduced, an interim review into the child protection department and the circumstances of Kumanjayi Little Baby in the lead-up to her death in April was tabled, highlighting numerous departmental failures in the way her case was managed.
Rather than a "lack of statutory authority or available protective mechanisms", the review — led by former New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb and senior Northern Territory public servant Greg Shanahan — found the key issue in Kumanjayi Little Baby's case was the "timeliness and effectiveness with which risk was identified, assessed and responded to".
"Despite repeated indicators of domestic and family violence, the cumulative impact of the violence and its implications for the child's safety were not adequately recognised, and protective responses were not pursued in a timely manner."
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Catherine Liddle, chief executive officer of SNAICC - National Voice for our Children, said the review "exposed failures inside the child protection system, not failures of the legislation protecting children's rights or their connection to family and culture".
"Yet those are the protections the Government has chosen to weaken," Ms Liddle said.
"What it the review shows is that Kumanjayi Little Baby's family was failed by a child protection system that continues to fail too many Aboriginal children because governments refuse to address the systemic problems we already know exist."
Instead of addressing the real issues, including a lack of funding, staffing shortages and capacity concerns, Ms Liddle added, "what we have seen is a politically driven agenda that has cut out Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, evidence-based reform and the people who work in this sector day in and day out".
