A new report outlining the funnelling of children from child protection into youth justice is "truly confronting," the nation's peak body for Indigenous children has said.
Released on Friday, the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare's (AIHW) Young people under youth justice supervision and their interaction with the child protection system 2022–23 reveals 65 per cent of those under youth justice supervision in 2022–23 interacted with the child protection system in the previous 10 years.
First Nations young people were 26 times more likely than non-Indigenous young people to have been under youth justice supervision during 2022–23 and to have had an interaction with the child protection system in the last 10 years, the report said.
Furthermore, the younger a person was when they first entered youth justice supervision, the more likely they were to have had an interaction with the child protection system.
Of those aged 10 at their first youth justice supervision, 94 per cent had an interaction with the child protection system at some point in the previous ten years.
Chief executive of SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, Catherine Liddle, said this was a "truly confronting statistic", and argued the report shows the child protection system is failing Indigenous children in Australia.
"The interconnectedness of the youth justice and child protection systems highlights a systemic failure and the strong need for culturally appropriate supports to divert at-risk children from further involvement with child protection and the justice system," Ms Liddle said.
"When children are separated from family, community and culture, the risk of adverse outcomes for their health, development, and wellbeing increases.
"We need to see more investment in supporting families, preventing child removals, and supporting cultural connections for children who are in care."
Young people under youth justice supervision outlined the link between abuse and youth justice, with 50 per cent of young people in detention during 2022–23 the subject of a substantiated notification of abuse - emotional and neglect the most common - in the last 10 years.
A report from the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner earlier this month found every child in youth justice who was audited had significant contact with the child protection system and 94 per cent had been exposed to domestic and/or family violence.
Ms Liddle said currently, there were "very few intervention, prevention or diversion programs" to stop a child going from one system to another.
She said the new National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People would be able to highlight and add impetus to recommended actions to "interrupt this unacceptable trajectory and increase the safety for our children in these systems".
"These children face complex and interconnected challenges, including a heightened risk of negative outcomes due to their involvement in both systems. They are the most vulnerable of our vulnerable children yet, rather than meeting them with support, our systems are reacting in increasingly punitive ways," Ms Liddle said.
The latest Closing the Gap data revealed First Nations children are removed from their families at a rate of 57.2 per 1,000 — 12.1 times that of non-Indigenous children.
Only NSW, ACT and the NT saw a decrease in the out-of-home- care (OOHC) rate from 2022, with Victoria - the worst performing state - removing more than one-in-ten Indigenous children from their families, at a rate of 102.9 per 1,000 children — 22.5 times the rate of non-Indigenous child removals.
Ms Liddle called for culturally appropriate support, not only to reduce incarceration rates, but also to promote the wellbeing of First Nations children in the child protection system.
"By failing to address the underlying issues or provide adequate support and intervention, child protection systems are contributing to a cycle of criminalisation and systemic disadvantage for our children," Ms Liddle said.
