Current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population

In the 2001 Census, 2.2% of the total population of Australia identified as Indigenous Australians. Of these 410,003 people, 366,429 identified as Aboriginal, 26,046 as Torres Strait Islanders and 17,528 as both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ABS, 2003).
The number identifying as Indigenous since the time of the 1996 Census had increased by 16% (ABS, 2002a).
In 2007, of the 954,629 children in Queensland, 59,126 were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. This represents 6.2% of the total Queensland child population aged 0 to 17 years (AIHW).

Over-representation within the child protection system

• The rate of Indigenous children who become the subjects of protective orders has continued to be significantly greater than for children from the general Queensland population (CCYP&CG, 2007).
• An increase in the rate of children from the general population being placed on protective orders over the past six years (from 4.0 per 1,000 children in 1999-2000 to 6.5 per 1,000 in 2005-06) has been mirrored by a greater increase in the rate of Indigenous children being made subject to these orders (from 15.1 per 1,000 children in 1999-2000 to 26.7 per 1,000 in 2005-06).
• The Queensland rate of 6.5 per 1,000 children from the general population on protective orders was higher during 2005-06 than the national rate of 5.6 per 1,000.
• Adherence to the Child Placement Principle continues to decrease with compliance rates at 62.2%. This means that in Queensland, of the 1,496 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care, 566 children are not placed with their family or community.

Types of abuse

A breakdown of the notification data into the primary presenting form of abuse and comparison to the total Queensland and Australian data demonstrate some basic differences which can enhance understanding of possible reasons for the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection system. This data needs to be treated with some caution however as most cases will include elements of multiple forms of abuse and choosing one type of abuse as the primary presenting form may oversimplify the discussion.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Queensland are as likely to present to the Department of Child Safety because of physical abuse and less likely because of sexual and emotional abuse. They are more likely than the wider population to become involved with the child protection system because of neglect. A change in recent years has seen emotional abuse become the most common type of abuse identified in both the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and the overall population. This classification is quite broad and is often linked to family violence.

The major difference between the two populations is neglect and this is linked in a number of ways to overall levels of disadvantage. Child abuse and neglect does not exist on its own but is rather symptom of the stress and pressures on families from individual, family and community sources.