Racism in children's protective systems must face in-depth scrutiny, inquiry told

An advocate has urged a federal inquiry into racism to examine the systems that exert power over First Nations children.

SA's Guardian for Children and Young People Shona Reid says that recognising racism in children's protective services means examining the system itself. Source: AAP / /

In brief

• Racism is consistently experienced in children's protective systems, an advocate says.
• First Nations children represent an outsized percentage of all children in care in SA.

Systems designed to protect children must face in-depth scrutiny, otherwise efforts to address racism will only provide surface-level change, an advocate says.

In a submission to a federal inquiry into racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, South Australia's guardian for children and young people Shona Reid says, for children, it is rarely something experienced as a single moment in time.

"It is experienced across a trajectory, shaping how they come into contact with systems, how they move through them, and where they ultimately arrive," she writes.

"What emerges from oversight is not a series of disconnected events, but a pattern of cumulative harm."

The inquiry is examining the prevalence, impacts and drivers of racism, hate and violence, as well as existing responses and opportunities for reform.

Reid writes that if it was to meaningfully address racism, it must look closely at the systems that exercise the greatest power over First Nations children and young people's lives.

Government data from 2025 shows that despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children accounting for only 5.5 per cent of young people in SA, they represented 37.9 per cent of all children in care, and 39.8 per cent of all children in out-of-home care.

"It is within these systems that racism is most consistently experienced and where reform has the greatest potential to change the trajectory of a child's life," she said.

Recognising this is a call to examine the architecture of the system itself, Reid writes.

"Without this, efforts to address racism will remain focused on surface-level change, while the underlying structures that produce inequity remain intact."

The parliamentary inquiry into racism directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will take evidence at a hearing in Adelaide on Friday.

Witnesses will include Reid, SA commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people Dale Agius, and representatives from the SA Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation Network, NPY Women's Council, and the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement.

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