Overview
- The Northern Territory parliament passed the Every Child Matters amendments late Tuesday night, which the government says will enable earlier intervention and more proactive family support.
- The bill replaces the existing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, a policy designed since the 1980s to prioritise placing First Nations children with kin, community or culture when they are removed from family homes.
- First Nations leaders, SNAICC, legal services and human rights groups have condemned the changes and staged protests outside Parliament House, warning the reforms could repeat harms of past child removals.
- An independent interim review into the death of five‑year‑old Kumanjayi Little Baby was tabled the same day and found serious departmental failures, recommending seven reforms including a comprehensive reset of the department's operating model.
- Senior federal ministers have said they will not intervene to overturn the law, a stance that leaves implementation and oversight to the Territory and raises questions about reunification rules, housing shortages and longer-term impacts on cultural safety and child welfare practice.