Respecting culture - allowing abuse

There has been no minister who has contradicted Premier Bligh’s original policy statements. In fact those statements have been highlighted and endorsed by subsequent ministers. Judy Spence the Family Services Minister in October 2003 stated:

… with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle. Essentially the purpose of this was to preserve the sense of identity by maintaining their own family, community and culture.

Mike Reynolds, as Minister for Child Safety and current Qld Parliamentary Speaker, stated in January 2006, two years after the Crime and Misconduct Commission's (CMC) enquiry:

… the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and their families had been carefully considered in all aspects of reforming the child protection system during the last two years. “The government has strengthened the Indigenous Child Placement Principle to better ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are cared for in a way that respects their culture and assists them to maintain their cultural identity”.

The original policy of the former Families Department has never been clearly rejected. A reading of the Practice Manual of the new Department of Child Safety, first applied in 2004, shows the adherence to cultural issues ahead of child safety when it involves Indigenous children in care.

That department's Practice Manual is still in use today.

Clearly since The Australian now has stories claiming abused children are still being returned to dysfunctional and unsafe environments something more than the arguments of over-zealous lower level employees is in play. The cause is more likely the Government Policy. Koch’s sources are right, the “Stolen Generation” rationale is rubbish.

The current Minister Margaret Keech should direct the Queensland Department of Child Safety to scrap the policy and Keech should oversee a re-write of the Practice Manual.