The NSW government has so far failed to listen to the Aboriginal community on how best to support and care for our children. But now, the frustration of our community is reaching a boiling point as regressive legislation has been rushed through parliament, which threatens to sever another generation of Aboriginal children’s connection to their heritage, family and community and alter the course of their lives forever.

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Aboriginal families adhere to the wisdom that “it takes a village to raise a child”. We know that Aboriginal children and young people are most likely to thrive when connected to their own communities. By coalescing over care for the kids, communities ensure every child’s safety and wellbeing is guarded by several adults. If one caretaker is either unavailable or unsuited for a particular task, there will be others to call on. Aboriginal kinship and families are not like Western families; they need a tailored system, which relies on its strengths while sheltering the weaknesses.

Current child protection policy is failing our children. High numbers of children are being removed from their families and communities. AbSec and numerous other Aboriginal community organisations have expressed the need for legislative change.

The NSW government has recently passed new laws, which expand the powers of family and community services to permanently remove children from their families. This has been done without any significant consultation or input from the Aboriginal community including from stolen generations survivors themselves. The reforms contained in the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment Bill 2018 make removals permanent, while dispensing with core safeguards and transparency. Aboriginal communities stand to lose the most.

Not only do permanent orders like adoption fail the best interests of Aboriginal children, but may also put them at risk

The statutory system removes Aboriginal children and young people from their families at about 10 times the rate of non-Aboriginal children. About 38% of all children removed into statutory care are Aboriginal. One aspect of this bill, which is of particular concern to us, is the arbitrary stipulation that the judgement on permanent placement has to be made within two years. While not intentionally targeting Aboriginal children, this policy will disproportionately affect them; a factor which the government has neither acknowledged nor considered. Aboriginal children are only 5% of under 18s in NSW but they make up 37% of all young people in care.

We know that the support of family and kin is vital in keeping Aboriginal kids safely at home and connected with their community and culture. These connections are critical to the safety and lifelong wellbeing of Aboriginal children. Not only do permanent orders like adoption fail the best interests of Aboriginal children, but may also put them at risk. Placements for children in out-of-home care are monitored to ensure children are safe and well cared for, and to provide important supports to children and those who care for them, promoting resilience and lifelong wellbeing. When children are adopted, these safeguards vanish overnight. These children are no longer considered the responsibility of the very authorities that removed them from home in the first place.

Despite all the apologies, all the inquiries, and all the evidence of the imperative that we design a system tailored to Aboriginal families, designed by Aboriginal people, and delivered by Aboriginal communities themselves, the government is doubling down on the failed policies of the past.

Instead we need to target the root causes of family dysfunction, ensuring that families receive the help they need without further threat. The factors behind a child’s removal – especially an Aboriginal child – often can’t be resolved within just two years. Services that address these problems are either subject to long waiting times or not available at all. It is simplistic and wrong to assume that the forced removal of the child is the answer. The Aboriginal child needs the family, community, culture and the sense that he or she belongs.

The Aboriginal child placement principles must be safeguarded and strengthened and must require family and community services to provide proactive support to every child in as far as possible to remain safely within the family. Other options should only be considered when this support has demonstrably failed.

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Existing provisions to improve approaches for Aboriginal children and families are underutilised and this must change. We must uphold the rights of Aboriginal children and young people, give Aboriginal communities greater authority to decide what is best for their children, and help them to develop the systems and processes needed to keep Aboriginal children and young people safe. The history of separating Aboriginal children from their families, communities and culture must not be repeated. Government needs to live up to its commitments.

We’ve walked this tired old path before and we know where it leads. Our children should not need to stand on the pavement outside NSW Parliament years from now, as those that came before us did in the past, and as many of us have done over the last few weeks, still calling for the changes that we know are needed today. On family and community services minister Pru Goward’s assertion that children and young people can’t wait, we whole-heartedly agree.

• Tim Ireland is chief executive officer of AbSec (Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat)