The 2022 Family Matters Report released Tuesday revealed a child protection system in crisis.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 10.4 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children, and are more likely to suffer abuse while in out-of-home care, the data showed.

The Report revealed that the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in out-of-home care has been increasing for ten years and also exposed systemic problems making Indigenous family reunification less likely.

The Report found that while Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were just as likely - 84.1% - to not return to care within 12 months of family reunification, the "overwhelming majority" of Indigenous children in care are in long-term arrangements, with reunification with their families not identified as a case plan goal.

The report, launched at Commonwealth parliament by SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, found Indigenous children are over-represented at every point of child protection systems across Australia, inclusive of notifications, investigations and substantiations of child harm, removal into out-of-home care, permanent removal, and adoption.

SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle said Aboriginal-controlled community organisations (ACCOs) were doing amazing work developing initiatives to drive positive change, but there was an absence of "transformative action and the resourcing of significant commitments that have been made at a Federal, State and Territory level".

"There must be commitment to our early years services that have a proven track record in strengthening families and children, helping break the nexus between child protection and the youth justice systems," she said.

At 30 June 2021, 22,297 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care.

The Report also found the percentage of Indigenous children placed with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander relatives or kin have remained "unacceptably low" in every jurisdiction, and an increase in children being placed with non-Indigenous carers.

The Report found there is a "crucial need" for child protection systems to dramatically reduce the rates at which children are removed into out-of-home care, and focus efforts on providing "therapeutic, holistic and culturally safe supports to families to reduce any risks to child wellbeing".

The findings also exposed a "concerningly low" proportion of expenditure allocated to family support services.

"As a result, only 36,416 children nationwide accessed intensive family support services in 2020-21, despite 120,800 children being the subject of an investigation for abuse or neglect, and 49,000 children being subject to substantiations (of abuse or neglect)," it said.

Family Matters co-chair Dr Paul Gray said 25 years after the tabling of the Bringing Them Home report it was unacceptable that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continued to be removed from their families at increasing rates.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, who launched the Report at parliament on Wednesday, commended SNAICC for their important work.

"We know that the numbers are increasing. But the answers to the way in which we arrest the numbers lies in this report," she said.

"What we've been doing at the federal level is to provide leadership and leverage at the state and territory level which is very important, but also be advocates."

Minister Burney noted measures announced in the recent federal budget including 500 additional First Nations health workers and practitioners.

"Now my vision for those health workers is that they have a focus on well-being and women and children. An additional 500 frontline family safety workers," she said.

The Report made 15 key recommendations for reforms to address all stages of the child protection system and early intervention support to prevent engagement with the system where possible.