Child protection workers at the former Victorian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) denigrated Aboriginal organisations and didn’t treat children with dignity, the state’s truth-telling commission has heard.
Aunty Glennys Watts, a Gunaikurnai woman who worked in the Aboriginal Engagement Unit of the renamed Department of Families, Fairness and Housing until August, told the Yoorrook Justice Commission she witnessed the behavior from staff.
“The child protection workers have a preconceived idea of the Aboriginal person or family before they go there," she said.
“[They] would actually be talking amongst themselves from across the room either running down the Aboriginal community controlled organisations that they were supposed to be … helping,” she said.
“Child protection were really rude, they’d talk about some children and they’d be talking to youth, and I used to cringe at my desk thinking ‘you know, this isn’t right’."
Ms Watts said she ended up putting in a complaint and was ostracised for doing do.
When she was later asked by the Commission’s Deputy Chair, Sue-Anne Hunter, if the system was racist, she replied “definitely.”
“[They are] bullying these people … they don’t treat people like humans, the trauma they must have been placing on these youth,” Ms Watts said.
"I would have hated to be in their shoes having somebody talk down to me."
The DFFH said “racism in any environment” was very concerning.
"We welcome the truth-telling process, and we will listen to and support the Commission in its work to confront the truth of historical and ongoing injustices in our systems, policies and legislation,” a spokeswoman said.
The commission turned its focus this week to the child protection and criminal justice systems in the state, and from Stolen Generations survivor Aunty Eva Jo Edwards, who shared her struggles after being removed from family.
Deputy Chair Sue-Anne Hunter during a public hearing of the Yoorrook Justice Commission. Source: AAP / Joel Carrett/AAP Image
Out-of-home care rates 'embarrassing'
Aunty Muriel Bamblett, the chief executive of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA), spoke to the inquiry of the "unacceptable" rate of children in out-of-home care and called for a properly funded child protection plan and system run by Aboriginal people.
The agency's submission acknowledged Victoria has Australia's best child protection system on the face of it, but suggested record investment by successive governments actually entrenches disadvantage, intergenerational poverty and cultural genocide.
The better alternative is Aboriginal-led organisations, with Indigenous childcare agencies returning children to safe and supportive families at twice the rate of other providers, the agency suggested.
"Every problem we have today in Victoria's child protection and criminal justice systems is a direct result of centuries of racist policies, legislation and reinforced discriminatory practice," Ms Bamblett told media following the inquiry.
"Victoria's infatuation with a system that places less value on the lives and cultures of Aboriginal children needs to stop."
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation chief executive Aunty Jill Gallagher, a Gunditjmara woman from Victoria's west, broke down in tears while addressing the commission.
"I believe the system is riddled with racism, it focuses on punishment and not rehabilitation and it needs to change," she said.
Ms Gallagher said she believes the systemic racism stems from European invasion and colonisation.
- Additional reporting by AAP
