Aboriginal mothers in Western Australia have reported staying in abusive relationships for fear their children would be removed if they sought help, a new report by Human Rights Watch has revealed today.
The 86-page report found that children from Aboriginal families are still being disproportionately removed from their homes more than 15 years after the Australian government issued an apology to Indigenous people for forcibly removing their children.
Mothers interviewed in the report said they feared a “victim-blaming” approach from Western Australia’s child protection case workers, and even avoided seeking medical assistance after incidents of domestic violence because they were afraid they would lose their children.
One woman said her five-year-old son was taken from her care after she sought treatment at a hospital for her domestic violence injuries.
“Because of the assaults from my second partner, the father of [my son], I went to the hospital and then the hospital got involved in and called [the Department of Communities],” she said. “Because my baby … was with me at the time when I went to hospital and then they came in and took [my son].”
Another Aboriginal woman, also a domestic violence survivor, said her three-month-old son was removed from her care last year because she was homeless.
The report, All I Know Is I Want Them Home’: Disproportionate Removal of Aboriginal Children from Families in Western Australia describes the ways Western Australia authorities have been promptly removing children from Aboriginal parents and mothers fleeing domestic violence without adequate housing instead of providing appropriate services to tackle domestic violence and homelessness.
The report found that Aboriginal children are more than 20 times more likely to be living in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous children.
Annabel Hennessy, Australia researcher at Human Rights Watch said that child protection authorities are removing Aboriginal children from their families “…at shockingly high rates in Western Australia” — blaming “a system that focuses more on policing families than providing them needed support.”
“Separating children from their families inflicts lasting trauma and should only be an option of last resort,” Hennessy said.
More than 50 people were interviewed in the report, including parents and grandparents from whom the state Department of Communities had removed children, children currently in care, and young adults who had grown up in care.
Among those interviewed, the most common reason cited for the department removing Aboriginal children was domestic violence.
Marianne Headland Mackay, a Noongar woman and National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project support coordinator said Aboriginal families were not being provided the care they need.
“[They] are struggling with unstable accommodation, yet a secure home – one of the most fundamental needs for a child to thrive – is denied to them,” she said.
“Instead of offering support to struggling families, the government’s approach is to remove children, causing more damage and deepening the wounds in our communities.”
Over the past twenty years, the number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in Western Australia has significantly increased. In 2003, 570 Aboriginal children were in out-of-home care. By 2023, that number had risen to 3,068.
A 2022–23 report by the Department of Communities claimed to prioritise efforts in reducing the rate of overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care by 45 per cent by 2031.
But as the Human Rights Watch report indicates, Western Australia continues to have the highest rate of overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care of any state or territory in the country. The state also spends the least of any state or territory on family support programs, allocating less than 5 percent of its child protection budget to such programs compared with the national average of 15 percent.
“The Western Australian government should urgently address and end these failed, punitive policies that result in removing Aboriginal children from their families and communities,” Hennessy said.
“A complete system overhaul is long overdue, and should start with a new state commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people with powers to investigate out-of-home care complaints.”
The report urged the Western Australian government to ensure families have access to adequate support early, including access to legal representation in accordance with their rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“The government should guarantee that First Nations people are central to decision-making on child protection policy,” the report said. “The state government should establish a commissioner to initiate inquiries, and receive and determine individual complaints relating to Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.”
NEW: Western Australia’s child protection authorities are disproportionately removing children from Aboriginal families and placing them in out-of-home care.
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw.org) March 27, 2025 at 3:47 AM
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