Scrap blue cards for First Nations kinship carers, Queensland family and child commissioner says

Queensland’s attorney-general, Yvette D’Ath, welcomed the QFCC report, saying ‘we acknowledge we can do more for kinship carers’. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Queensland’s family and child commissioner has called for blue card requirements to be scrapped for First Nations kinship carers after a report found the system relies on “irrelevant information, overpolicing and subjective assessments”.

Since 2001, Queenslanders who work around children have needed to obtain a blue card, with offences including drug trafficking, murder and child abuse disqualifying a person from obtaining one. But a report by the Queensland Family & Child Commission (QFCC) found blue cards create additional barriers to placing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with their families.