Removing children from already vulnerable families is deepening wounds among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, under a system that focuses on policing families over providing support, a report has found.
Aboriginal children in Western Australia are 20 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous kids, the highest over-representation rate in the country, according to the report from Human Rights Watch.
"Child protection authorities are removing Aboriginal children from their families at shockingly high rates in Western Australia because of a system that focuses more on policing families than providing them needed support," Human Rights Watch researcher Annabel Hennessy said.
Human Rights Watch and the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, interviewed Aboriginal families in western Australia, finding domestic and family violence was the most common reason children were removed.
Some women described a "victim-blaming" approach from case workers, saying they had stayed in abusive relationships out of fear their children would be removed if they sought help from authorities.
Western Australia's Department of Communities' data showed "exposure to family violence" followed by neglect are the most common reasons why harm is substantiated in investigations into Aboriginal families.
Western Australia's Commissioner for Children and Young People Jacqueline McGowan-Jones said one of the overarching issues is the conflation of poverty with neglect.
"Where this becomes an absolute disaster is where somebody is escaping family violence and then may be living rough," she told AAP.
"The children and the safe parent are punished for that behaviour and the children are removed."
Many of the families interviewed by Human Rights Watch who faced contemporary child removals were descendants of Stolen Generations survivors.
For these families, ongoing child removals were particularly devastating, the report said.
"Instead of offering support to struggling families, the government's approach is to remove children, causing more damage and deepening the wounds in our communities," National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project support co-ordinator Marianne Headland said.
Western Australia spends less than five per cent of its child protection budget on family support programs, the least of any state or territory in the country.
Ms McGowan-Jones said early intervention is critical in supporting families and children.
"What we need to remember is that we cannot pick a child apart and get each part fixed," she said.
"We need to put the child at the centre."
SNAICC, the peak body for Indigenous children, chief executive Catherine Liddle said the state government has left a 10-year roadmap to reduce the number of children in care, which would address many of the issues in the report, "sitting on a shelf".
"Despite the government's commitment to finalise the roadmap in 2024, we have seen no progress and it's our children who are paying the price," she said.
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