Target 12 pressure grows as child welfare alliance pushes for First Nations-led reform

Pressure is intensifying on governments and mainstream child protection providers to change how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are supported, after a national alliance warned Australia is falling behind on its commitment to reduce the over-representation of First Nations children in out-of-home care.

At Parliament House this week, Allies for Children, the First Nations NGO Alliance and SNAICC – National Voice for our Children called for urgent reform to change the trajectory of Closing the Gap Target 12. Under the national agreement, governments have committed to reducing the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care by 45 per cent by 2031. Advocates say current progress is too slow and, in some places, moving backwards.

SNAICC says there are now about 23,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in out-of-home care, and that First Nations children are 10 times more likely to be in care than non-Indigenous children. More than half are placed with non-Indigenous mainstream organisations, despite longstanding evidence that better outcomes are achieved when children remain connected to family, kin, culture and community. That disconnection sits at the heart of the current push. SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle told NITV: “Every child needs to know who they are, that’s a fundamental principle of child development.”

The alliance is arguing for more than symbolic support. Its core demand is a staged transfer of responsibility, resourcing and decision-making to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, or ACCOs, so more children can be supported by services designed and governed by community. That approach is framed not as a future aspiration but as a model already being tested in practice. SNAICC says the Allies for Children partnership represents around 15 per cent of child and family services nationally and is collectively responsible for the care of about 1,900 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

The reform push also challenges mainstream organisations directly. Rather than waiting for governments to redesign the system from above, alliance members say large non-Indigenous providers must examine their own policies and structures and actively shift power to First Nations-led solutions. Liddle said the problem is systemic, saying: “It’s not moving fast enough, and it’s not moving at that system level.”