The Family Matters Report 2019 launch
The Family Matters Report 2019 launch took place on 17 October at Old Parliament House on Ngunnawal Country. Ngunnawal-Ngambri man Paul House gave a moving Welcome to Country, with Dr. Chelsea Bond as Master of Ceremonies.
Our keynote speakers were two advocates with lived experience of the child protection system, Isaiah Dawe, CEO and founder of ID.Know Yourself and UTS Research Fellow and lawyer Kirsten Gray.
Other speakers included Family Matters Co-Chair Natalie Lewis; SNAICC CEO and Family Matters Co-Chair Richard Weston; Greens Senator Rachel Siewert; Labor spokesperson The Honourable Linda Burney MP and Assistant Minister for Children and Families Michelle Landry MP.
This year’s report highlighted the continuing crisis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being over-represented in out-of-home care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are now 10.2 times more likely to be in removed from their families than non-Indigenous children.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children make up 37.3% of the out-of-home care population but are only 5.5% of the total number of children in Australia.
The Family Matters Report 2019 projects that the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care will more than double in the next 10 years if currents trends continue.
