NT intervention failing to curb abuse

The head of one of Australia's peak Aboriginal child protection agencies says the federal intervention has failed to achieve one of its key goals.

Muriel Bamblett from the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care says the intervention has not curbed child abuse and the Territory's child protection system remains seriously flawed.

Ms Bamblett says there has not been a significant increase in notifications for child protection in the Northern Territory and that throws the effectiveness of the emergency response into question.

"The reality is that child protection was the focus and we haven't seen a lot invested in child protection," she said.

"We haven't seen an investment in Aboriginal organisations doing child protection, in fact we've seen Aboriginal organisations lose funding."

Quote: Child abuse can be found most anywhere but that doesn't mean that a land grab will fix the problem. So why didn't they invest in child protection? Because it was an excuse for a land grab by the John Howard Government.

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