00:00In order to thrive, most Indigenous kids need the familiarity and support of their communities.
00:08The Children's Commissioner says being taken into non-Aboriginal child protection facilities
00:14can be alien and destructive.
00:17That means, can lead to children being disconnected from their family, their community, their
00:22language, losing sense of who they are in the world.
00:25She's concerned the Territory Government plans to enable courts to stop adhering to
00:30the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.
00:33Under the principle, kids being taken into care should go to extended family or other
00:39community members.
00:41The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle was brought in to
00:44address racist and discriminatory laws that saw thousands of children removed from their
00:50families, community and culture and led to devastating effects.
00:53Leaked documents obtained by the ABC show the government wants to allow judges to use
00:59the placement principle, just where practicable.
01:02We don't want another stolen generation here in 2025 or 2026.
01:07Indigenous legal groups want the plan ditched, or at least more consultation.
01:13Give us adequate time.
01:14They've only given us two days and we just think it's really inadequate and poor on the
01:18part.
01:19The Territory's Child Protection Minister, Robin Cull, declined an interview.
01:24She provided a statement saying the change is to ensure the safety and protection of
01:29all Territorians.
01:31The Children's Commissioner is questioning the apparent conflation of child protection
01:36and crime.
01:37I'm really struggling to understand a causal link between that assertion and these proposed
01:43amendments.
01:44She's calling on the government to invest more in family support, domestic violence
01:49prevention and housing, instead of preparing the ground to remove more kids from their
01:55indigenous communities.
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