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Children’s Ground condemns the Northern Territory Parliament’s decision to pass damaging child protection law reforms last night in the form of ‘Care and Protection of Children Legislation Amendment (Every Child Matters) Bill 2026’.
These laws are a deliberate and devastating step in the wrong direction for the rights, safety and wellbeing of First Nations children.
The Northern Territory government has ignored the advice of experts and the evidence. It has ignored widespread opposition from First Nations communities, Aboriginal-controlled organisations, legal experts, child welfare advocates and governments across Australia. These amendments weaken long-established protections designed to keep Aboriginal children connected to their families, communities, culture and Country.
For generations, First Nations families have experienced the devastating impacts of legislation designed to remove children from family, culture, identity and community. First Nations children remain nearly ten times more likely to be in out-of-home care or on third-party parental responsibility orders than non-First Nations children (Family Matters Report, 2025). The Northern Territory already has the highest rates of child removal in Australia.
The true measure of a child protection system is not how quickly it removes children, but how successfully it protects children.
The high numbers of our children caught up in “child protection” systems are not a sign of risk within our families. They are a sign of a system that continues to fail and harm our children. This legislation does not address this failure; it instead increases the risk to our children and families.
The answer to systemic failures is not to weaken protections for First Nations children. Removing the safety net of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle will place our children at risk. Undermining this principle risks serious dislocation of our children from their identity, culture and families and ongoing harm.
Children’s Ground has consistently called for governments to move away from crisis-driven and political interventions and towards long-term investment in First Nations-led solutions.
The evidence is clear: prevention, early intervention, culturally responsive support and First Nations community-controlled services are critical to child safety and protection.
Safety and culture cannot be separated. Safety requires an unwavering commitment from Government to the needs of families, stable housing, prevention and genuine community authority, not deeper intervention by a system already inflicting lifelong damage.
We are deeply concerned that the voices of First Nations leaders, families, community-controlled organisations and human rights advocates who warned against these reforms were not meaningfully heard.
The true measure of a child protection system is not how quickly it removes children, but how successfully it protects children. It is how we prevent families from reaching crisis and have in place the solutions to support every First Nations child to grow up safe, loved and strong in their family, culture, identity, Country and community.
We call on the Northern Territory Government to:
Children’s Ground leaders, families, Elders and communities, stand with many others across the Northern Territory and nationally in opposing these amendments and demanding justice and safety for children. We will continue our work at Children’s Ground to achieve transformational systems change to prevent the removal and risk to future generations of children.
