Number of Aboriginal Children in Protection Increasing, Despite More Funding

About 24,600 Indigenous children were subject to care and protection orders as of June 2022, new figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Wellbeing (AIHW) show. That equates to 72 out of every 1,000, up from 62 per 1,000 four years earlier. Nearly a third of those affected are aged between 10 and 14. Aboriginal children make up just 5 percent of all children in Australia, but they account for almost half of those in the child protection system. Indigenous children who were placed with relatives for out-of-home care rose from 50 percent in 2017 to 54 percent in 2022. In total, 19,000 were in out-of-home care, though not all of these were able to be placed with family. Of that number, 14,000 were classed as having been in long-term care, meaning they had been separated from their primary family unit for two years or more....