00:01Well, former New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb and long-term NT public servant
00:07Greg Shanahan have been chosen to lead this review into the Department of Child Protection's
00:13handling of Kulmanjai little baby.
00:15Now, Child Protection Minister Robin Carl says the aim of this review is to unravel
00:20what did, what didn't happen and what should have happened before the little girl's alleged
00:24murder just two weeks ago.
00:26Because the processes that occurred in the Kulmanjai little baby case are the departmental
00:31wide processes, they're going to use that as the baseline and say what happened here,
00:37what was done and then those recommendations will be able to be rippled through the entire
00:42department.
00:43This review is expected to start next week before running for three months.
00:47In this announcement, Minister Carl was very quick to rule out any suggestions that it
00:52was her government's intention to remove the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child
00:56placement principle, which currently stipulates the order of preference the department has
01:02on placing children in out-of-home care if they are taken away from their biological parents.
01:06At this point in time, the first preference is to place the child in the care of a parent
01:11followed by a family member, then an Aboriginal person in their community before ending with
01:16any Aboriginal person.
01:18As a last resort, it is then up to the department to choose who the child should be placed with.
01:22But having a read through the proposed bill, it does appear that this has been watered down.
01:28The government has dubbed their changes the universal principle, which will apply to any
01:34child regardless of their race, background or culture.
01:37And the order of preferences under that principle are that a child should be placed firstly with
01:42a parent followed by a family member and then thirdly, any one of the departments choosing.
01:48Now, in saying this, however, there is a carve-out for First Nations children where the proposed
01:54bill does suggest placing a child in close proximity to their family or community and making
02:00sure that they have the resources to develop and maintain any connections to culture and
02:05community.
02:06These proposed changes do, of course, though, have community peak bodies and advocates concerned.
02:11We recognise that the child protection system needs reform and it needs major reform.
02:17We know it's failing our families.
02:19We know it's failing our children.
02:21But the Aboriginal child placement principles have been designed based on evidence and the
02:26work that we're doing across the country is to strengthen those principles.
02:30And the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction looking to walk back the strength of those
02:34principles.
02:35And so we're deeply concerned.
02:36We don't know the detail.
02:38The detail hasn't been shared with the sector.
02:40So we're unable to comment on any of the specific details of it.
02:44But we are concerned that any changes to placing children with their family can have a long-term
02:50impact.
02:51At this point in time, it does remain unclear when NT Parliament will debate this proposed
02:56bill with the upcoming sitting days reserved for estimates.
02:59And now we're looking forward to the athletes.
03:00And the athletes will get the candidates.
03:01I think the athletes will be looking forward to the athletes.
03:02I think the athletes will be looking forward to athletes and the athletes is going to be
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