Aboriginal Health in Aboriginal Hands Winnunga News ISSN 2206-3080 NOVEMBER 2020 Inside this Issue: Family Matters Report Exposes Broken Child CEO Update Protection System in the ACT 3 I was very pleased to be able to meet with Mr Mick Gentleman Mother Teresa ELC Art following the recent announcement of his appointment as Show 4 Minister for Corrections. I congratulated Mr Gentleman on his AMC Riots a Sign of appointment and I look forward to working with him. Failure 5 I was nevertheless blunt in my assessment of the challenges he Policy Promises will face in this portfolio and of the need for a major Evaporate In realignment in and commitment to the management and Julie Tongs OAM, CEO Post-Election Pact 6 operations of the AMC. Mr Gentleman has clearly been thrown Searing Criticism by the most blatant hospital pass of any of the Ministers in the ATSIEB of the ACT newly elected Government and will need all the support and Government Demands assistance possible if he is to reverse the Governments’ appalling Detailed Response 8 record in relation to corrections. COVID-19 Update 9 The irony of being assigned responsibility for corrections just as the AMC explodes in Congratulations to riot will not have been lost on the Minister. I also reminded him that he has inherited a Karabar Clontarf Academy 10 prison system that has experienced, over the last ten years under his Government, the highest increase in Aboriginal incarceration in Australia. Aboriginal imprisonment in Families And Friends For Canberra has increased by 279% or at a rate which is five times higher than the average Drug Law Reform across the rest of Australia. In addition the ACT has the highest rate of Aboriginal Remembrance Day 11 recidivism in Australia. Gugan Gulwan School Holiday Program 12 It is clear that whatever the ACT Government has been doing in relation to corrections is not working. It is imperative, therefore, that it needs to do things differently. My hope is Winnunga’s Opening Times Over Christmas that with a new Minister and a new start that the changes necessary to deliver a change and New Year 12 in outcomes will be instituted. Winnunga AHCS New In the October edition of this newsletter I commented in some detail on the range of Building 13 promises made by the incoming Government which were specific to the Aboriginal and Staff Profile 14 Torres Strait Islander community. I commended the Government for the wide - ranging set of commitments it had made to the First Nations community and indicated I intended to provide regular updates on the implementation of all of the promises that were made by the ALP and the Greens. I have since then had an opportunity to read the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement issued by the two governing parties. The Agreement sets out, in Appendix 1, a range of issues which they have agreed are a priority and which they will implement. It is notable that only one of the almost 40 Aboriginal specific promises made in the election campaign has been included in Appendix 1. Do it with us, not to us Aboriginal Health in Aboriginal Hands P A G E 2 The Agreement also lists in Appendix 3 and Appendix 4 the promises the respective parties made which they will, ‘subject to budget consideration’ seek to implement. A significant number of the promises made by the two parties do not appear in either Appendices 1, 3 or 4 or indeed anywhere in the Agreement. I accordingly propose to write to the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Greens for advice on the status of all of the promises which they made as part of their campaign for re-election which have not been included in the Agreement. I will also seek clarification about the significance of the proviso to all of the promises ‘We will be listed in Appendix 3 and Appendix 4 that their implementation is ‘subject to budget using 2021 to consideration” and whether that proviso was made clear when the promise was made or if it was imposed following their success in the election. consolidate The Winnunga AHCS annual general meeting was held on 20 November. I am pleased to and stabilize inform Craig Ritchie, Lynette Goodwin, Alana Harris and Shanaye Baxter have all been our services. re-elected and will continue to serve on the Board for the coming three years. We As a part of welcome new Board member Dion Devow, and thank outgoing Board member Katrina Fanning for her time and vigilance in the role of Treasurer. The 2019-2020 Winnunga this we will be AHCS Annual Report can be found at: https://winnunga.org.au/wp-content/ undertaking a uploads/2020/11/Annual-Report-2019-2020.pdf comprehensive We will be using 2021 to consolidate and stabilize our services. As a part of this we will internal data be undertaking a comprehensive internal data collection and analysis process to assist in determining what we need in order to address underlying issues around poverty, child collection and protection, incarceration rates and how we as an organisation in consultation with our analysis clients can achieve improved life outcomes for all our First Nations clients and overall process...’ community. The data will be used for Winnunga planning purposes. Work has remained on track for the new building, which we anticipate to be completed in late January 2021. Some of you may have seen the recent progress including the installation of windows and the external scaffolding being removed. Laying down of flooring and interior painting is albeit completed, and both the internal and external façade is looking amazing. I thank you all for your patience over the last 12 months as it has not always been easy to access services which are delivered in the middle of a construction site! I am very much looking forward to Winnunga being able to provide a quality building to go with our quality services to all our clients. This is something that has been long overdue and is without a doubt well deserved. The latest photos are available on page 13 of this Newsletter. Do it with us, not to us Aboriginal Health in Aboriginal Hands P A G E 3 Family Matters Report Exposes Broken Child Protection System in the ACT The 144 page Family Matters Report 2020 is painful to read. The report opens by noting that on 30 June 2019 there were 20,077 ‘Family Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Matters children, or one in every 16 Aboriginal estimates children living in Australia, in out-of-home care, with the majority of those children that, without unlikely to ever return to their family or kin. urgent action, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander the number of children represent 37% of all children that Aboriginal have been removed from their parents but children in represent only 6% of children in Australia. out-of-home Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander care in children were on average 9.7 times more Australia will likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Aboriginal children. In the ACT an double by Aboriginal child was 12.9 times more likely 2029.’ to be in out of home care than a non-Aboriginal child. The third highest rate in Australia. Family Matters estimates that, without urgent action, the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in Australia will double by 2029. The rate at which children who return to out-of-home care following a reunification was highest in the ACT with 36% of all Aboriginal children reunified with family or kin in the ACT returning to care. It is notable the Report reveals that the ACT has one of the lowest levels of funding, per capita, for intensive family support services in Australia. At 30 June 2019 there were 16,287 Aboriginal children on long-term guardianship, custody or third parental responsibility orders, making up 81% of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care and other supported care. The rate of Aboriginal children on these long term orders was highest in Victoria at 75 per 1,000 and second highest in the ACT at 67 per 1,000. The Family Matters Report noted that these data reflect a particularly disturbing trend to increase the use of legal permanency which lacks safeguards for Aboriginal children’s safety and wellbeing and carries unacceptable risks of severing cultural and family connections for children. The Report contains a plethora of other information and data which Winnunga AHCS will Fact: In the ACT an Aboriginal child is 12.9 times more likely to be in out of home care than a non-Aboriginal child. Do it with us, not to us Aboriginal Health in Aboriginal Hands P A G E 4 Family Matters Report Exposes Broken Child Protection System in the ACT (cont’d) detail in subsequent editions of the Winnunga News. The report also contains a summary of the views of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community of each State and Territory of the response of their respective State and Territory Government to the crisis in the care of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Below is the assessment which ACT Aboriginal community representatives made of the ACT Government’s management of the care and protection of Aboriginal children in Canberra. ‘The Australian Capital Territory has one of the highest rates of over-representation in the country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were 12.9 times more likely to be in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children in 2018-19.