MOTIONS › Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children
Senator SIEWERT ( Western Australia — Australian Greens Whip ) ( 17: 12 ): I move: That the Senate— (a) notes that: (i) 26 May 2017 marks the 20 year anniversary of the historic report, Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, and (ii) 26 May is Sorry Day, a day to acknowledge and recognise members of the stolen generations; (b) acknowledges: (i) the ongoing impacts of the intergenerational effects on the stolen generations and their families, (ii) that a disproportionate number of Aboriginal children are still in out-of-home care, (iii) that the 2016 report of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC), Family Matters, found that: (A) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are almost 10 times more likely to be removed by child protection authorities than non-Indigenous children, and (B) the population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed by the child protection system is likely to triple by 2035, and (iv) children in out-of-home care experience poor outcomes on a range of indicators; and (c) calls on state, territory and Commonwealth governments, as a matter of urgency, to implement the recommendations contained in the report of SNAICC.