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policy by failing to notify it of Aboriginal children in care (submission 325 page 13).Indigenous children constitute approximately 3.8% of the child population inTasmania. The following table shows Indigenous children made wards of the State as aproportion of total children made wards of the State.Indigenous State wards in Tasmania1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-967.6% 9.4% 17.9% 10.4% 3.4%In 1995-96, for the first time, Indigenous children were not over-represented inwardship statistics. At the same time, however, as at June 1996 Indigenous children werestill over-represented among all children on care and protection orders (8.4%).ACTAlthough the ACT Government supports the ACPP in principle, the ACPP is notincluded in the Children’s Services Act 1986 (ACT) which governs fostering. Thelegislation is currently under review and the Government expressed its commitment toinclude the ACPP in the new legislation (interim submission page 24). Neither the ACTwelfare department nor any of the five non-government fostering services has beensuccessful in recruiting any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander foster carers.Indigenous children constitute approximately 1% of all children in the ACT. In1994-95 Indigenous children constituted approximately 4.7% of abuse and neglectnotifications and 7% of care and protection orders. This increasing over-representationwith level of intervention is consistent with patterns in other jurisdictions.Evaluation of the ACPPRecognition of the ACPP has marked a great shift in child welfare practice.Indigenous people, however, cannot control its implementation. They are not assisted orpermitted to determine the destiny of their children.Incomplete legislative recognitionDespite government acceptance, the ACPP is still not legislatively recognised inTasmania, WA, Queensland and the ACT. Legislative recognition has beenrecommended to governments on numerous occasions and in a range of reports andforums including the Australian Law Reform Commission report The Recognition ofAboriginal Customary Laws (1986). In 1986 the Council of Social Welfare Ministers’Conference passed a resolution supporting the ACPP. Recommendation 54 of the RoyalCommission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody called for legislative recognition of theACPP and the role of AICCAs and all State and Territory governments have agreed toimplement it. Only two States, Victoria and South Australia, have done so in full.

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