Report finds child protection failures before Indigenous child’s death

A damning independent report into the Northern Territory’s child protection sector has detailed confronting and heartbreaking failures in the lead-up to the alleged abduction and murder of five-year-old Warlpiri girl Kumanjayi Little Baby.

The child was found dead in April after being taken from an Alice Springs town camp, leading to the murder charge of a 47-year-old man. Tabled in the NT parliament by Minister for Children and Families Robyn Cahill, the review conducted by former NSW police commissioner Karen Webb and senior public servant Greg Shanahan revealed a recurrent pattern where children were placed in the care of adults without basic criminal background checks. The investigation found that despite the family being known to the department before the child was born and facing multiple indicators of domestic and family violence, safety plans relied on adults whose risk was improperly assessed, including one person with a long and violent criminal history.

The NT government has accepted all 45 recommendations from the report aimed at addressing serious gaps in policy, process, and risk assessment.