Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has called for a federal takeover of child protection, saying foster parents have told her Indigenous children are being put back into the hands of abusers.
Nampijinpa Price levelled serious accusations against the Northern Territory’s child protection agency on Sunday as she reiterated her opposition to enshrining an Indigenous voice in the constitution.
“The only sort of referendum I would support right now is if we put the lives and the responsibility of children into the federal arena,” she told the ABC.
“That’s a referendum I could get behind because I think we absolutely need a review of how that is, or isn’t, working across the board.”
Asked whether that meant the federal government would run child protection, Nampijinpa Price said: “Absolutely. If it’s actually doing it from the perspective of upholding the human rights of our children, regardless of racial heritage, in this country, then that’s something I would support.”
The Coalition has been riven by divisions in the wake of the Liberal party’s decision earlier this month to actively oppose enshrining an Indigenous voice in the constitution.
The shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, Julian Leeser, quit the frontbench and the former minister Ken Wyatt resigned from the Liberal party after the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, vowed to campaign for ‘no’ in the referendum to be held between October and December.
Over the past few days the NT police minister and prominent Aboriginal Territorians have reacted angrily to Dutton’s claims that young Indigenous children “are being sexually assaulted still on a regular basis” in Alice Springs, saying he should report any wrongdoing to police for further investigation.
The NT police minister, Kate Worden, said Nampijinpa Price’s claim that children were being returned to abusive homes was incorrect.
She said her department had heard “crickets” from the senator and Dutton who had not made any reports about cases of child abuse they had referenced in media conferences.
“You can’t just claim these things and then walk away … she needs to come forward and make declarations [to police] that support that view,” Worden told reporters in Darwin.
“The kinship care system has gone a long way in making sure that we can develop relationships within communities and find safe places for young people within family and culture, but never at the expense of the safety of the child.”
Worden said the territory’s child protection system did not place children back into communities or homes where abusive perpetrators lived.
“The current statements that are being made around our child protection system are incorrect,” she said.
“Everybody has a role to play in child safety … we’re all in this together. None of us have our heads buried in the sand and it’s really important that we don’t get destabilised.”
The minister said many child protection workers in the department would feel “demonised” by Nampijinpa Price’s comments.
On Sunday the assistant minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, called for an end to “the political blame game and the political football that Alice Springs has become”. McCarthy reiterated that it was mandatory to refer any sexual assault accusations to police.
Nampijinpa Price, who was with Dutton during the opposition leader’s visit to Alice Springs last week, was asked repeatedly by the ABC Insiders host David Speers whether the claims had been reported to police.
“Look, David, we’re not stupid. Peter Dutton is a former policeman, he knows what needs to be done,” the Warlpiri-Celtic woman said on Sunday.
Nampijinpa Price alleged that the child protection agency – Territory Families, Housing and Communities – was prioritising keeping Indigenous children with their family or community over safety considerations.
She said Territory Families “has known about these circumstances” and she was assuming that the agency had reported the incidents to police. She said she also knew foster parents had “done the due diligence and they have done the reporting in these circumstances”.
Asked whether she was making the serious accusation that “Territory Families are putting kids in the hands of abusers”, Nampijinpa Price replied: “That’s right.”
“And this is what foster parents have been telling me – and I have no reason to believe that these concerned parents are making these stories up, especially when I’ve heard them over and over again.”
The NT’s Care and Protection of Children Act states that in any decision involving a child, “the best interests of the child are the paramount concern”. Territory Families, Housing and Communities was contacted for a response.
Nampijinpa Price said there was a “sense of shame or denial around Indigenous kids”, who were “not given the same reverence as someone like Grace Tame is given when they want to be heard, when they want their voices to be heard”.
Nampijinpa Price, who has been tipped as being in line for a potential promotion after the departure of Leeser from the frontbench, said this would be “a decision for Mr Dutton and for the leadership”.
During an interview with Sky News earlier on Sunday, McCarthy said it would be no surprise if Nampijinpa Price was promoted “because we know what we’re getting in terms of her position with the voice”.
“I think what I’d say to all Australians is this: be watchful of the way people conduct themselves throughout this whole campaign,” McCarthy, a NT Labor senator and Yanyuwa Garrawa woman, said.
McCarthy said she was reaching out to conservatives, amid renewed speculation of plans for a “Liberals for yes” campaign.
