The Northern Territory royal commission will hear evidence about the the rising rates of forced removals of at risk Aboriginal children from their families as National Reconciliation Week continues on Tuesday.
On Monday the inquiry heard the story of a girl who was placed in child protection more than 40 times, who claimed she missed years of school, went to the dentist just once and wasn’t treated for scabies.
The woman, known as AH, said she stopped going to school but case managers did nothing about her truancy.
Twenty years after the landmark Bringing Them Home report into the Stolen Generation was released, the rise in the rate of removal of Aboriginal kids from their families has continued, counsel assisting the commission Tony McAvoy SC said.
He said it’s shameful that Territory kids receive child protection services at three times the national rate.
The inquiry has returned to Central Australia with a focus on child welfare systems, with vulnerable witnesses, academics and ex politicians slated to give evidence.
AAP
