Victoria’s department of families has conceded systemic racism persists in the child protection system, with a senior bureaucrat telling the state’s truth-telling commission of a desire for Indigenous organisations to lead its work.
The nation-leading Yoorrook Justice Commission has begun hearing testimony from government witnesses, and has heard no single department is responsible for reducing the number of Indigenous children in the out of home care system.
Argiri Alisandratos, the acting associate secretary at the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, told the commission it had more to do to eliminate racism and bias within the system.
“We’re not shirking away from that responsibility,” he said on Thursday.
Alisandratos said child protection workers were motivated to support families and children, but acknowledged that there was bias and racism that existed across the department’s workforce.
Counsel assisting the commission Fiona McLeod SC said it was “intolerable” that racism and bias affected the work of the department.
“It’s intolerable that those biases would make their way into the assessments of First Nations’ children,” she said.
Alisandratos said more work needed to be done to research what impact racism and bias had on the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the child protection system.
Commissioner Kevin Bell said “shamefully high rates” of Indigenous children being removed from their families in Victoria suggested that a “pressing problem of racism” persisted in the sector.
McLeod also asked Alisandratos about which department was accountable for reducing the rates of First Nations children being removed from their families.
When Alisandratos replied that it was a whole-of-government commitment, another commissioner, Maggie Walter, said the dispersing of accountability was “problematic”.
“I can’t see any way in which things will change,” she said.
Alisandratos argued it was difficult to simplify a complex issue that required input from multiple departments.
He also stressed the department’s aim was for the child protection system to be led and informed by Indigenous organisations.
However, he said the department had not built enough trust with First Nations families to effectively make use of Aboriginal-controlled organisations for early intervention.
“That’s a responsibility we have,” he said.
Alisandratos said there is also a need to improve early intervention support for families before children were removed and placed into out-of-home care.
Last year Daniel Andrews vowed to overhaul the state’s child protection system, with the premier saying too many First Nations children were being removed from their families.
Victoria has the highest rate of Indigenous children in out-of-home-care compared to other states, according to the latest data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
In February, the government introduced legislation that will empower Aboriginal-controlled organisations to investigate child protection cases and connect families with support before a court order is made.
The state’s attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, the child protection minister, Lizzie Blandthorn, and the police commissioner, Shane Patton, are expected to appear before the Yoorrook commission next month.
Yoorrook is Australia’s first Indigenous truth-telling body and has the same powers as a royal commission.
Its mandate is to investigate historical and current systemic injustices against First Nations people and it will produce a final report with its findings by mid-2025.
The due date for the final report was pushed back a year after the state government failed to produce key documents on time.
