Controversial child protection legislation passed by the Northern Territory Government flies in the face of decades of evidence, Labor's Social Services Minister says.
Despite significant backlash and overwhelming opposition from Aboriginal organisations, human rights bodies, child protection experts and legal groups, the Country Liberal Party (CLP) Government passed its child protection legislation last week.
The reforms remove the legal enforceability of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP) by requiring it to be applied only "as far as practicable". They also cap protection orders at two years in favour of permanency placements.
Last week, National Indigenous Times reported Northern Territory and Queensland child protection ministers Robyn Cahill and Amanda Camm declined to sign a statement endorsed by every other child protection minister in Australia, including Ms Plibersek, at a meeting of Community Services Ministers (CSM), affirming that implementation of the ATSICPP is "entirely consistent with child safety".
Speaking at a First Nations justice conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said any jurisdiction that pretends "safety and connection are somehow at odds [with child safety] really flies in the face of decades of evidence".
"I wanted a national recommitment to the child placement principle," Ms Plibersek said.
"Because I wanted the NT to know that they are isolated in their view that the child placement principle sits at odds with child safety. These things sit hand in hand."
Asked whether the Commonwealth should intervene in the Northern Territory, as urged by Senator Lidia Thorpe, Indigenous organisations and legal bodies, Ms Plibersek said Labor had long supported self-government for the ACT and the NT.
Referring to the Howard government's intervention in the Northern Territory's assisted dying laws, she said it would be hypocritical for the Commonwealth to now override the Territory's legislation. Instead, she argued, "there are things that we can do short of rolling over their legislation".
"I'm looking for opportunities to put pressure on them to do the right thing," Ms Plibersek added.
"I think as a Commonwealth government, we don't run the Northern Territory, but we can actually try and hold the Northern Territory to account for decisions that they are making."
Her comments are the latest from the federal government on the NT's laws.
Last week, Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy and Labor's envoy for remote communities Marion Scrymgour argued the reforms were being pursued "without proper consultation and against the advice of child protection experts, doctors, paediatricians, frontline workers, and Aboriginal organisations working at the coalface".
"It serves only to intensify the distrust and division between First Nations families and the CLP government," they said.
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During the parliamentary inquiry into the legislation, 120 of the 150 submissions called for the bill to be withdrawn or substantially amended. Despite this, the CLP-majority committee recommended it pass with only a minor amendment.
The Northern Territory Government has faced sustained criticism from First Nations leaders, child protection experts and politicians over the reforms. However, it has consistently defended the changes as necessary to improve child safety.
Asked on ABC's 7.30 program whether the bill made it more likely Aboriginal children would be removed from their families, Ms Cahill said: "Absolutely not."
"There has been zero lowering of the threshold," she said.
"In actual fact, what it will do is make a Department more accountable to the work they have to do to keep those families connected and together."
National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People Sue-Anne Hunter said the passage of the legislation was devastating.
The Every Child Matters Bill "will only have negative impacts on the care, safety and protection of First Nations children in the NT", Commissioner Hunter said.
"Any politician, voice or commentator that says otherwise is incorrect."
"This decision is one Aboriginal families and communities across the Northern Territory will carry for generations."
