{"id":686400,"date":"2026-05-22T02:25:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686400\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T02:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:25:14","slug":"northern-territory-chief-minister-dismisses-concerns-about-landmark-child-protection-changes-as-hysteria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686400\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Territory Chief Minister dismisses concerns about ‘landmark’ child protection changes as ‘hysteria’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of her family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has labelled concerns about proposed child protection changes as “hysteria”, a day after the prime minister called for “respectful” consultation with outraged Aboriginal groups.<\/p>\n

Stakeholders have been given one week to comment on what the NT government describes as “landmark” changes to the Care and Protection of Children Act.<\/p>\n

The government admits that it did not consult with Aboriginal organisations, who warn the changes could do “generations” of harm<\/a> rather than fixing problems with the system.<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

The proposed changes to the child protection legislation has received criticism from the sector. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

Ms Finocchiaro made her first public statements on the changes in an interview on ABC Radio Darwin on Thursday.<\/p>\n

She denied the changes “remove” the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle (ACPP) that prioritises kinship or Aboriginal carers, which critics say is over-ridden by the proposed changes.<\/p>\n

“I would recommend people who are interested to read it for themselves and make sure they’re fully informed because the hysteria around this is completely ill-founded,” she said.<\/p>\n

“People can write letters until the cows come home.<\/p>\n

“Our job is to make good laws that protect Territorians and deliver for the Territory, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The NT government has said their proposed reform to child protection has made “safety” the number one priority. (ABC Kimberley: Andrew Seabourne)<\/p>\n

The government says the changes will increase stability for children removed from their families by making it easier for permanent protection orders to be made.<\/p>\n

Children will also be represented independently in court, which Ms Finocchiaro said was a “positive reform being masked by all the hysteria” from critics.<\/p>\n

Plans for the changes were first reported last year but NT Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill foreshadowed their introduction to parliament in the wake of the alleged murder of a five-year-old girl known as Kumanjayi Little Baby in Alice Springs last month.<\/p>\n

NT accused of ‘politicising tragedy’ with child protection laws<\/a><\/p>\n

Peak Aboriginal bodies have accused the NT government of using Kumanjayi Little Baby’s alleged murder as political cover to push ahead with sweeping changes to child protection laws.<\/p>\n

Aboriginal health and legal services argue the proposed changes will make it easier for children to be removed and harder for families to be reunited.<\/p>\n

They also say there will be no mechanism to enforce a new requirement for caseworkers to take “proactive steps” to support at-risk families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked whether there is evidence that can be shared with the public showing the ACCP was putting children at risk, Mrs Finocchiaro said she did not know anyone “saying … the Northern Territory’s child protection system is amazing”.<\/p>\n

“What evidence do you have that people believe that?” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve certainly not heard it myself and I’m on the ground a lot.”<\/p>\n

She said “everyone can see” why the legislation could not wait until the results of a review of Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case, while also criticising claims the government was using the tragedy to avoid scrutiny of its proposed changes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby went missing from Alice Springs Old Timers town camp. (Supplied: NT Police)<\/p>\n

Jefferson Lewis, 47, has been charged with the murder of the girl, known as Kumanjayi Little Baby, whose body was found five days after she went missing from a town camp where she was staying with her family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three child protection workers were stood down in the wake of her death<\/a> but the department has not explained what processes were not followed in Kumanjayi Little Baby’s case.<\/p>\n

The government and NT Police have declined to investigate leaks revealing that several child protection notifications were made regarding the home.<\/p>\n

Territory Labor leader Selena Uibo is yet to comment on the changes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chansey Paech says child protection legislation needs to be designed in collaboration with the sector. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

Deputy leader Chansey Paech said “no one has ever questioned” that the safety of NT children comes first.<\/p>\n

“But we also need to make sure the legislation is developed with communities, informed by evidence and guided by lived experience, not rushed without proper consultation,” he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

Albanese calls on NT government to work with Aboriginal community<\/p>\n

The comments come a day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese travelled to meet with the family of Kumanjayi Little Baby <\/a>in Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

The prime minister said the trip was an opportunity to tell the little girl’s grieving family “that the nation stands with them”.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese met with the family of Kumanjayi Little Baby in Alice Springs on Wednesday. (Supplied: Australian Government)<\/p>\n

Asked about the CLP’s proposed changes, Mr Albanese said his government would “work constructively with the Northern Territory government”.<\/p>\n

“But they also need to work respectfully with the local community, with the family and need to make sure they involve First Nations people as well in this local community to work through these issues in the most constructive way possible,” he said.<\/p>\n

He gave the same response when asked if he was comfortable with the proposed changes.<\/p>\n

“Look, we’ll work with them, we want to see through outcomes which are appropriate,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We do think that everything possible should be done, of course, to keep children safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That’s the number one priority because tragedies such as Kumanjayi Little Baby’s should never occur. Every child has a right to live in safety and to be treated with respect.”Calls for independent review to come first<\/p>\n

Federal Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour said the government was “putting the cart before the horse” with proposed child protection legislation changes and should wait for outcomes from the independent review into the territory’s child protection system.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Marion Scrymgour says laws should not be changed until after an independent review into Kumanjayi Little Baby’s circumstances has been completed. (ABC News: Xavier Martin)<\/p>\n

Ms Scrymgour said the ACPP did not make children unsafe, but rather, a lack of resources and funding within the department and “the capacity of child protection staff to triage and to work with risk as notifications are made”.<\/p>\n

She added that the appointment of former NSW police commissioner Karen Webb to lead the child protection system review could be perceived as “punitive”, and that the government had “sidelined” NT Children’s Commissioner Shahleena Musk.<\/p>\n

“We keep going around in circles with this issue and more kids will fall through the gaps and we’ve got to work together to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Ms Scrymgour said.<\/p>\n

Submissions on the bill are due to the scrutiny committee by the end of Friday, before a public hearing is held next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24261,2324,64,63,27089,330662,20294,316883,310266,30376,316884,44,330661],"class_list":["post-686400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alice-springs","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-child-protection","tag-child-protection-nt","tag-clp","tag-kumanjayi","tag-kumanjayi-little-baby","tag-lia-finocchiaro","tag-little-baby","tag-news","tag-stolen-generations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}