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CANBERRA - Record numbers of Australian children are being removed from their parents despite a decline in cases of abuse and neglect.
Last year the number of children in out-of-home care rose 10 per cent to more than 31,000, continuing a trend that has seen a 115 per cent increase over the past decade.
"This is unacceptable in a country like Australia," said Eris Harrison, acting chief executive of Families Australia, a national coalition of child protection organisations. "[These figures] are disturbingly high, indicating that we are still not doing enough to protect Australia's children."
The figures, produced for the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's latest annual report on child protection, were released yesterday ahead of moves to create a new national framework to tackle abuse and neglect.
The framework will be on the agenda of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's next meeting with state and territory leaders at the Council of Australian Governments in March.
"These figures underline the importance of developing a concerted national response which properly safeguards all children," Harrison said.
"We are looking to all governments to commit themselves to substantially increased investment for the enhancement of child and family wellbeing and the prevention of child abuse and neglect."
Worst hit are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.
The institute's report said indigenous children up to the age of 16 were more than six times as likely as other young Australians to be the victims of substantiated cases of child abuse.
Overall, the rate of indigenous children in out-of-home care was almost nine times the rate of other children.
The appalling incidence of abuse of Aboriginal children sparked former Prime Minister John Howard's dramatic intervention in the Northern Territory, which has continued under Labor.
Report co-author John Sant said the increase in the numbers of children in out-of-home care could be explained in part by the fact that more children were admitted to care than were discharged each year.
"Factors such as low family income, parental substance abuse, mental health issues and family violence tend to lengthen the time these children are in care," he said.
But the report also indicated that new policies of early intervention may be helping to stem the tide.
Sant said substantiated notifications of child abuse fell by 8 per cent between 2006-07 and 2007-08, falling from more than 60,000 to about 55,000.
This could be a result of new policies in some states and territories of offering early intervention family support services, rather than removing children where there was a low level of immediate risk.
"The decline in substantiations is welcome news, but we will need to wait for future years' data to see if the trend continues," Sant said.
