EXPERT REJECTS JACINTA PRICES’ CLAIMS THAT FAMILY REUNIFICATION LEADS TO ABUSE

BY ELIZA KLOSER

Jacinta Price told ABC Insiders that the NT was “putting kids in the hands of abusers” by returning children to their families. Credit: Jacinta Price fb

An Indigenous psychologist has rejected claims from Voice to Parliament opponent and Walpiri woman Jacinta Price that the Northern Territory’s Department of Families was “putting kids in the hands of abusers” by returning children to their families.

Ms Price made the comment when speaking to ABC Insiders two weeks ago about the territory government's families, housing and communities department, which oversees the foster care of Indigenous children.

The Senator claimed Indigenous children in foster care were being returned to abusive homes due to kinship rules which she said should be abolished.

“We need to remove the kinship aspect,” she said. “We need to say that children who are living in circumstances where their human rights are being upheld should not be removed for the sake of putting children back with kin.”

“I’m also aware of circumstances where there are some kin who know that there is money involved with raising a child so they will put their hand up for the opportunity to have more money in their pocket.”

Experts are concerned by the newly-appointed Aboriginal Affairs Shadow Minister’s comments, saying this will make things worse in Aboriginal communities.

Nyamal woman and psychologist Doctor Tracy Westerman criticised Ms Price for her views on the issue of child abuse. 

Dr Westerman said there is significant evidence to show that being raised with strong, intact cultural connections leads to better mental health outcomes.

“There is this ideology around the idea that Aboriginal kids are somehow better off without being in their families,” she said.

“We’ve known about this since the 1950s, that if you remove a child from their family, those families never recover, those children never recover.

“It is irrefutably linked to an ongoing escalation of trauma, it is a pipeline to incarceration, a pipeline to suicide.

“It never ends well when you remove a child from a family.”

Dr Westerman said that in the Northern Territory 91 per cent of children removed from their families are First Nations and 65 per cent of children removed are placed with non-Indigenous families.

Ngaarda Media’s Eliza Kloser asked Nyamal and Jilya Institute Director, Psychologist Dr Tracy Westerman, why child removal figures are so disproportionate.