Daniel Andrews has expressed his government’s “great shame” regarding the overrepresentation of First Nations children in Victoria’s child protection and criminal justice systems, saying racism and injustice need to be “confronted and addressed”.
In a statement representing the strongest language the premier has used about the removal of Indigenous children from Victorian families, Andrews acknowledged that discrimination against First Nations people persisted today.
“The ongoing over-representation of First Peoples in the criminal justice and child protection systems is a source of great shame for the Victorian government,” he wrote in the letter to Eleanor Bourke, the chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, which is conducting a nation-leading truth-telling inquiry.
Andrews said his government acknowledged the injustices that had caused the overrepresentation.
“It [the government] is also responsible for ensuring that racism and injustice are confronted and addressed,” he said.
The state’s First Peoples’ assembly said the “belated” acknowledgment should spur discussion about the importance of Victoria’s treaty process to “address the harms of colonisation”.
The assembly is due to begin negotiating a state-wide treaty with the Victorian government later this year.
Victoria has the highest rate of Indigenous children in out-of-home care compared to other states, according to the latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The government’s submission to the inquiry revealed that as of June last year, First Nations children were 22 times more likely than non-Indigenous children to be in out-of-home care. They were also seven times more likely to have been investigated by child protection and nine times more likely to have harm substantiated.
It said that in the decade to June 2020, the number of First Nations people in prisons increased by 148%.
“Over this period, the number of Aboriginal people in prison on 30 June each year increased from 290 to 718. On 30 June, there were 695 First Peoples in prison,” the submission said.
Yoorrook has begun a stint of hearings that will see government witnesses hauled before the inquiry. Argiri Alisandratos, the acting associate secretary at the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, appeared before the commission on Thursday and said there was more to do to eliminate racism and bias within the child protection system. He said the department wanted more Aboriginal-controlled community organisations to lead work in the child protection system.
On Friday, Alisandratos said about one-third of First Nations children in the out-of-home care system did not have a cultural support plan – a legally required document that includes information about an Indigenous child’s family, community and culture.
Alisandratos told the commission that, once a First Nations child was in a permanent out-of-home care placement, there was no oversight of cultural support plans because the department’s responsibility ceased.
Commissioner Kevin Bell said it was “shameful” the system failed to provide cultural plans for all First Nations children given the overrepresentation.
Last year the premier vowed to overhaul the state’s child protection system, saying too many First Nations children were being removed from their families.
In February, the government introduced legislation that will empower Aboriginal-controlled organisations to investigate child protection cases and connect families with support before a court order is made.
The state’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, the child protection minister, Lizzie Blandthorn, and the police commissioner, Shane Patton, are expected to appear before the Yoorrook commission next month.
Yoorrook is Australia’s first Indigenous truth-telling body and has the same powers as a royal commission. Its mandate is to investigate historical and current systemic injustices against First Nations people and it will produce a final report with its findings by mid-2025.
The due date for the final report was pushed back a year after the state government failed to produce key documents on time.
