Indigenous children continue to be over-represented in incidents of alleged child abuse, a new report from the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People says.
Tabled in Parliament on Thursday, the 2023-24 report outlined 1,892 notifications of reportable allegations from heads of organisations—a 30 per cent increase on the number of notifications received in 2022–23, and a 136 per cent increase on the number received in 2017–18.
383 individuals were found to have committed a total of 1,135 substantiated allegations of reportable conduct, with the school's sector seeing 498 allegations of sexual misconduct.
Across all sectors, 38 per cent of sexual misconduct allegations were substantiated.
Despite making up only two per cent of the Victorian population under 18-years-of-age, eight per cent of unique alleged victims were identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
"The over-representation of Aboriginal children in notifications of reportable conduct is another example of the disproportionate and unjust harms they suffer in systems that too often fail to protect them," Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, Meena Singh said.
"In safeguarding children and young people, we must prioritise our efforts to the most at-risk and address the barriers that separate them from support, including racism."
The Commission said they identified a lack of risk mitigation and appropriate screening tests—especially for religious and sporting organisations.
In some instances, workers or volunteers had been charged with, or were being investigated over, criminal offences against children, whilst still participating in their roles with no strategies in place to manage potential risk.
Furthermore, a lack of screening processes put children at risk by allowing alleged perpetrators to move between organisations.
Both Commissioner Singh, and Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People, Liana Buchanan, recommended the Victorian Government act to improve education for children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC).
The state removes more Aboriginal children from families than any other jurisdiction in Australia, at nearly twice the national rate.
Of the 25,916 First Nations children in Victoria, at least 2,668 have been removed and placed in child protection.
Yoorrook Justice Commission Deputy Chair, Commissioner Sue-Anne Hunter, previously told National Indigenous Times: "Victoria's child protection system isn't broken; it's working exactly as it was intended to based on the state's colonial foundations, which decimated Aboriginal family structures and communities."
The Let us learn report found racism was prevalent in both schools and OOHC, and Commissioner Singh said children had told the Commission racism remains and "ongoing and serious problem" - especially for Aboriginal children in schools - which undermined their wellbeing and educational engagement.
"Under the Child Safe Standards, schools have an obligation to create culturally safe environments and take a zero-tolerance approach to racism," she said.
The report highlighted a lack of any new funding for the Reportable Conduct Scheme (the Scheme) since its inception in 2017, despite a 584 per cent increase in the number of public notifications received.
As a result, the Commission has started to "significantly reduce" oversight of a "high number of investigations" under the Scheme.
"What we see in the Scheme tells us how important it is, but growth in notifications must be matched by increased resources if we are to maximise child safety. We will keep working with government to achieve this," Commissioner Buchanan said.
"The increasing number of notifications under the Scheme also points to the need for organisations to redouble their efforts to implement the Child Safe Standards and prevent child abuse."
