Date published: 28 May2026
- At half of all children in out-of-home care, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children remain a defining feature of the Queensland child protection system.
- A new report shows children are entering care at higher rates, remaining in care longer, and increasingly being placed in residential care.
- The ATSICPP is the solution. The real issue is not the policy itself, but the quality and consistency of its implementation.
A new report released today by Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner Natalie Lewis, shows Queensland’s child protection reforms have failed to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care.
The report, Principle focus: A continued commitment to systemic accountability for the safety and wellbeing of Queensland’s First Nations children, provides updated analysis of the ongoing over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across all stages of the child protection system. First Nations children now make up almost half of all children in out-of-home care in Queensland, despite representing less than 10 per cent of the child population.
The findings show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander over-representation are being driven by decisions that see them entering out-of-home care at disproportionately higher rates than non-Indigenous children and remaining in care for longer periods. Alarmingly, the report shows they are increasingly being placed in residential care settings disconnected from family, kin, culture and Country.
The report argues the issue is not the absence of reform commitments, but the failure to consistently implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle (ATSICPP) in practice. Inconsistent implementation across legislation, policy and frontline practice continues to perpetuate structural inequity and maintain the conditions driving over-representation, despite commitments made under the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
Governments’ ongoing failure to close the gap highlights the need to address the broader drivers increasing families’ exposure to the child protection system, including domestic and family violence, poverty, housing insecurity, social disadvantage and inequitable access to culturally safe health, disability, Blue Card and family support services.
This becomes especially important given the report showing Queensland’s growing reliance on high-cost residential care responses while they fail to finalise Blue Card kinship carer amendments; and investment in prevention, family preservation and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled solutions remains comparatively limited.
Reducing over-representation will require coordinated cross-portfolio reform and stronger state and Commonwealth cooperation to ensure families can access quality supports before crisis occurs.
The data clearly shows the ATSICPP does not prevent governments from removing children from kin, culture and Country. The principle exists to ensure those decisions are lawful, accountable, culturally informed and directed toward the enduring safety and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The evidence shows it is still not being implemented to the standard of Active Efforts.
The report calls for stronger investment in prevention, early intervention, family preservation and reunification efforts alongside greater accountability, transparency, and genuine shared decision-making with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Quotes attributable to Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Commissioner Natalie Lewis:
- “Queensland cannot reform the child protection system without confronting the ongoing over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in care.”
- “Self-determination, cultural connection, and family participation are protective factors for children, not competing interests.”
- “The evidence does not show that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle has failed. The evidence shows that it has not been fully implemented to the standard of Active Efforts in practice.”
- “If government is truly motivated to get children out of unsuitable and obscenely costly residential care, a key action they could take immediately is to enable commencement of the Blue Card kinship carer amendments, enabling children to be cared for safely, by family who love them rather than continuing to invest in failure.”
Read the Principle focus report on our website.
For media information contact:
Vanessa Kendall | Queensland Family and Child Commission
Phone: 0423 565 108
Email: media@qfcc.qld.gov.au