Aboriginal leaders have warned the Northern Territory's controversial overhaul of child protection laws could embolden other governments to weaken protections for First Nations children, after the legislation passed parliament despite sustained opposition from Indigenous organisations and child welfare experts.
National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, Wurundjeri and Ngurai Illum Wurrung woman Professor Sue-Anne Hunter, said communities across Australia should pay close attention to the reforms.
"I think that Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia need to watch this closely, because we know when one state starts rolling things back, other states follow," Professor Hunter told NITV.
"And I'm really concerned for the state of this country for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people."
The Care and Protection of Children Legislation Amendment (Every Child Matters) Bill 2026 passed the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, marking the most significant overhaul of the Territory's child protection system in decades.
Among its most contentious changes is the removal of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle as the paramount consideration in placement decisions involving Aboriginal children.
Developed in response to the Bringing Them Home report into the Stolen Generations, the principle seeks to ensure Aboriginal children remain connected to family, community and culture wherever it is safe to do so.
The Country Liberal Party government says the reforms are designed to improve child safety through earlier intervention, arguing the existing system has produced the nation's lowest rate of kinship placements for Aboriginal children and left too many children in unsafe situations for too long.
Professor Hunter said the legislation ignored decades of evidence about what keeps Aboriginal children safe.
"We're devastated for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the Northern Territory and our communities," she said.
"We believe with weakening the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle we're going to see more children removed."
She rejected the government's repeated claim that the legislation was evidence-based.
"If we look at the evidence, every major inquiry — the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the Queensland Commission of Inquiry — points the same way, and this bill goes the other," she said.
"It's not evidence based, and there's no evidence in this that this will make children, as they call it, safer. I think it'll go the other way."
The legislation attracted unusually broad opposition before passing parliament. More than 120 of around 150 submissions to a parliamentary scrutiny committee opposed the bill, including submissions from Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, legal groups, children's advocates and human rights organisations.
The government has also rejected claims it ignored community consultation, saying it gave greatest weight to the views of foster and kinship carers, frontline workers, young people with lived experience of care and Aboriginal organisations working directly with affected families.
Professor Hunter said the response from Aboriginal organisations told a different story.
"We saw a protest yesterday before it was even passed," she said.
"Aboriginal community-controlled organisations in the Northern Territory are the ones closest to these children. They are the ones holding them, feeding them, driving them to court.
"If their submissions went unanswered, the claim doesn't survive contact with that record."
Professor Hunter said the response from Aboriginal organisations told a different story.
Northern Territory MLA Yingiya Mark Guyula said the government had ignored Aboriginal voices and should withdraw the legislation.
"This government is wrong. This bill is wrong, and it should be withdrawn," he said.
"This is a government that thinks it knows what is best for Aboriginal people. They are not experts. They are not Aboriginal people. They have not consulted experts or Aboriginal communities, but they think they know what is best."
The Yolngu man also referenced the resignation of Children's Commissioner Shahleena Musk, who quit her position after saying she had not been adequately consulted during the development of the reforms.
"The failure of the government to consult with her is disgraceful," Guyula said.
"The Children's Commissioner is an independent statutory position created by this parliament. It should be respected.
"I want to thank the former commissioner, on behalf of myself and my people, for listening to us and standing strong for our people."
He also represented the deep frustration of Aboriginal communities who he said were feeling ignored during the debate, a frustration he shared.
"As I share the frustration of not being listened to, I am standing here as an elected member of this parliament," they said.
"I have been sent here by the people, by my people, Aboriginal people. We are telling you that we do not want this bill."
SNAICC chief executive Catherine Liddle said the breadth of opposition should have prompted the government to reconsider the legislation.
"A statement from every other Child and Family Minister from across the country reinforcing the very principle you're trying to destroy should be setting off alarm bells throughout the NT Ministry that they have got things horribly wrong," Ms Liddle said.
"It's clear that the Territory is becoming a pariah state when it comes to the care and safety of Aboriginal children."
Ms Liddle said governments across Australia had committed to reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care through the National Agreement on Closing the Gap, and argued the Territory's reforms moved in the opposite direction.
"If the NT Government truly cared about the safety of children they would be doing what the evidence, and the sector has been calling for — investing in family supports and early interventions, before families are in crisis and children are removed," she said.
"We all agree that children do best when they grow up with family, loved and safe, knowing who they are and where they belong."
Professor Hunter said the focus would now shift to how the laws were implemented, warning there was a risk more Aboriginal children would be separated from their families without addressing the underlying pressures on the child protection system.
"We need to watch very closely where this goes," she said.
"If more children are being removed, there's another thought of where these children will be removed to. We've got a shortage of carers.
"We need to remember it's not legislation that is the problem. It's the actual practice in the Northern Territory, and they're under-resourced."
She said the Child Placement Principle had emerged directly from the findings of the Bringing Them Home report.
The landmark report found that the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, known as the Stolen Generations, had inflicted deep and lasting trauma, and recommended that children should remain with their families and communities wherever possible, preserving their cultural connections and identity.
"We need to make sure that our children are not being removed from family, community and culture under the guise of safety because we know this happened in the past," she said.
"The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle came out of the Bringing Them Home report. Why we are not embedding that properly within legislation is beyond me because we should have learned from that."
Professor Hunter said her office would seek discussions with the Commonwealth about accountability under national agreements, including Closing the Gap and the Safe and Supported framework.
"States and territories signed up to Closing the Gap," she said.
"If they also signed up to Safe and Supported, then we need to have accountability measures."
