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AUSTRALIA 
Removal rate 'similar to Stolen Generations'
Wednesday, 1 October, 2008
New figures show 669 children were in state care during the last financial year. (AAP)
A new Queensland Government report shows Aboriginal children are being removed from their families at a rate similar to the Stolen Generations of the 1920s.
The figures provided by the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Partnership reveal 669 children were in state care during the last financial year compared to 700 children forcibly removed from their parents during the peak of assimilation policies last century.
Partnership director Donna Klein says the system is over-burdened.
In a letter earlier this month to Premier Anna Bligh, the peak body for indigenous child protection agencies also warned of massive compensation claims in the future because of the failure to address the over-representation of indigenous children in the child protection system.
The partnership, which represents more than 20 indigenous organisations, also accused the Government of failing to comply with the indigenous child placement principle, where children were supposed to be housed with indigenous carers.
"We already have too many youth suicides and if we don't start providing early intervention services to families in their communities by indigenous organisations, we're going to lose more and more kids to the child protection system and to suicide," Ms Klein said.
Source: SBS
