Northern Territory report finds child protection failures before five-year-old girl's death
An independent review commissioned by Australia's Northern Territory government has identified serious child protection failures before the death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby. The government has accepted all 45 recommendations, while the opposition says the report misses the root cause.
A report on the child protection sector in Australia's Northern Territory, tabled in the territory's parliament on Tuesday, details "confronting" and "heartbreaking" failures in the period before the alleged murder of Warlpiri girl Kumanjayi Little Baby.
The five-year-old was found dead in April, five days after she was allegedly abducted from a town camp in Alice Springs. Police charged Jefferson Lewis, 47, who was not a member of her family and was not known to her mother. He is in custody and has yet to enter a plea.
Origins and findings of the review
The territory government commissioned the independent review after the girl's death. It was carried out by Karen Webb, a former New South Wales police commissioner, and senior public servant Greg Shanahan. Their priorities include strengthening the child protection practice framework and its link to domestic and family violence, risk assessment and safety planning, including properly checking whether adults are suitable to be carers.
Children and families minister Robyn Cahill told parliament the report showed a "recurrent pattern" in how police worked with the department, allowing children to be placed with adults without a criminal background check. She described serious gaps between what the law required and how it was applied.
The girl's family had been known to the department since before she was born, and 14 notifications were received over six years about her exposure to domestic and family violence. Her mother was assaulted at least twice during the pregnancy. When the girl was 17 weeks old, a safety plan relying on adults in the family's network was put in place, but the review found no evidence that any of them underwent police or background checks. It was later established that one had a long violent criminal history, including five counts of threat to kill.
Opposition criticism
Opposition spokesperson Chansey Paech said the report does not address the root cause: that an allegedly violent offender was released from prison without housing, work, money or supervision. He also criticised the government's decision not to refund Darwin's largest homeless shelter, YiSSA, which closed last week.
The government has accepted all 45 recommendations. An interim report released in July said the review team could not draw a link between matters referred to the Department of Children and Families and the circumstances leading to the abduction.
