Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

21 Child Welfare – Care and ProtectionThe way present legislation responds … is merely allowing Aboriginal community organisationsto become part of the process … There is no support for the development of genuine Indigenouschild care or child welfare as, for instance, there has been in the United States under thejurisdiction of the Indian Child Welfare Act (Nigel D’Souza, SNAICC, evidence 309).OverviewIndigenous children throughout Australia remain very significantly over-represented‘in care’ and in contact with welfare authorities. Their over-representation increases asthe intervention becomes more coercive, with the greatest over-representation being inout-of-home care. Indigenous children appear to be particularly over-represented in longtermfoster care arrangements. A high percentage of Indigenous children in long-termfoster care live with non-Indigenous carers.Over-representation of Indigenous children in careThe following table provides an overview of the over-representation of Indigenouschildren in substitute care in 1993. The highest rate of placement for Indigenous childrenwas in Victoria and the lowest was in the NT. On average Indigenous children wereseven times more likely to be in substitute care than their population share wouldindicate. Indigenous children comprise only 2.7% of Australian children but they were20% of children in care in 1993.Indigenous children in care in 1993ACT NSW NT QldSA Tas Vic WA TotalTotal children in care 135 4,694 123 2,112 1,195 498 2,504 1,102 12,363Indigenous children in care 12 b 829 52 615 293 55 300 c 353 2,419% Indigenous children in care 8.9 17.7 42.3 29.1 17.0 11.0 12.0 34.9 19.6% child populationwho are Indigenous a 1.0 2.1 33.7 2.0 2.0 3.5 0.7 4.3 2.7Indigenous children in careper 1,000 aged 0-17 years 15 26 3 19 28 13 40 18 20Non-Indigenous children in careper 1,000 aged 10-17 years 1.6 3.0 2.3 2.6 3.3 3.9 2.2 2.2 2.7a Figures for the Indigenous child population in each State are taken from the Australian Bureau ofStatistics (1993b 1991 Census of Population and Housing, Aboriginal Community Profile ABS Cat. No.2722.0). The Aboriginal out-of-home care and census figures could well be underestimates because of