The suspension of Kiama MP Gareth Ward from the New South Wales parliament has jeopardised a bill based on a landmark inquiry that found the removal of Aboriginal children from their families was escalating “at an alarming rate” in the state.
The Family Is Culture bill would for the first time require magistrates to “presume” an inherent harm in removing Aboriginal children from their families, in what advocates have hailed as a landmark reform to NSW’s scandal-plagued out-of-home-care system.
