Two Indigenous service providers say they fear the rate of Aboriginal children being removed from their families will rise, after a leaked report revealed widespread racism within the WA Department of Communities.
The report by Indigenous Psychological Services (IPS), which was commissioned by the department to examine its cultural competency and child protection standards, was finalised in October 2019 but never released publicly.
The recently leaked report painted a damning picture of the department, including evidence of "endemic racism", and found that of the 295 child protection staff who were surveyed, not one felt culturally safe in the department's workplace.
Psychologist and Nyamal woman Tracy Westerman, who headed the report, told the ABC that racism was a driving factor behind the over-representation of Indigenous children in state care.
Despite only 4 per cent of the WA population being Indigenous, the Department of Communities' 2017-2018 annual report showed 55 per cent of the children in state care were Aboriginal.
By 2020-21, the annual report stated that of the 5,344 children in care, 3,056 were Aboriginal — an increase of more than 2 per cent to 57.2 per cent.
Aboriginal Family Legal Service WA chief executive Corina Martin agreed with Dr Westerman, saying she expected rates of Aboriginal children being removed from their families to continue rise.
"[The department is] more in line with assimilation than they are with trying to help families," Ms Martin said.
Department of Communities assistant director general for Aboriginal outcomes Cheryl Smith said claims that child removal rates would rise, were not backed up by child protection data.
She said in the last reporting year, there was a reduction in the total number of Aboriginal children in care for the first time since 1997.
"Encouragingly, this trend has continued into the new reporting year, with the current number of Aboriginal children in care fewer than 3,000 children for the first time since 2019," Ms Smith said.
However, while the overall number of Indigenous children in state care fell slightly, the proportion of Aboriginal children compared to non-Indigenous children in care increased.
'There should be alarm bells'
Dr Westerman said that since the report was completed more than two years ago, the department had not confirmed to her whether it had implemented any of her 49 recommendations.
"No one has actually engaged with me, as a subject matter expert, to get my thoughts and advice and guidance on the report," she said.
"Based on that evidence, I would say that no, the recommendations haven't been implemented."
Dr Westerman said the department should have acted immediately when it received her report.
Ms Smith said the department had drawn on many of the recommendations contained in Dr Westerman's report, in designing policy, process and practice.
"This will be an ongoing body of work for years to come."
Ms Smith said Dr Westerman's recommendation for the department to consider the expansion of the Aboriginal in-home support service pilot for high-risk communities had been enacted.
Dr Westerman said her report, which was anonymously leaked to a media organisation recently, found cultural attachment-based programs were "non-existent" within the department.
She said the report found "extraordinary amounts of deficits" in areas such as training child protection workers.
Only three staff met the minimum working standard of cultural competency.
"Clearly staff are saying, 'We are struggling, and the system needs to support us better'."
Calls to make report public
Dr Westerman has called on the department to publicly release her 2019 report.
Shadow Minister for Child Protection, Nick Goiran, said the Opposition had not been provided a copy of Dr Westerman's report, but he would be seeking it to be tabled when Parliament resumed this month.
He said the 2019 findings seemed to mirror what came out of the Ford Report in 2007 — a study that looked at how to better manage vulnerable children in care.
Mr Goiran said the 2007 report found an increasing number of cases were awaiting investigation, unbalanced staff workloads, retention issues, and a lack of coordination between government and non-government agencies.
"This is why it's so exasperating, because it's not that none of us know," Mr Goiran said.
Cultural appreciation now compulsory
Ms Martin described the department's approach towards Aboriginal families as "very paternalistic".
"Some support the clients as much as they can but, overall, they're not using interpreters, I don't believe, in a lot of cases," she said.
Ms Smith said Aboriginal cultural appreciation was now a compulsory part of the department's induction program.
She said it was currently working to establish an Aboriginal Strategic Advisory Group, which would be made of a ministerial appointed group of Aboriginal representatives, to advise on all policy and work practices.
Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk declined an ABC request for interview, and instead pointed to comments she made at a press conference last month, in which she said the department was doing all it could to better the outcomes for its staff and Aboriginal people.
"We have worked very hard with Aboriginal stakeholders to identify ways that the department itself can improve its practice, but importantly where we can hand over some of that work to Aboriginal organisations.
"I think it is unfair to expect the department or the government, in five years, can overcome that sort of disadvantage."
