Jacinta Price calls for federal takeover of child protection, claims Indigenous kids being sent back to abusers

Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says the only referendum she would support is ‘if we put the lives and the responsibility of children into the federal arena’. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has called for a federal takeover of child protection, saying foster parents have told her Indigenous children are being put back into the hands of abusers.

Nampijinpa Price levelled serious accusations against the Northern Territory’s child protection agency on Sunday as she reiterated her opposition to enshrining an Indigenous voice in the constitution.