Where was Aboriginal Self-determination in the Wood Inquiry? A Policy Analysis of Child Protection 'Reforms' in NSW, Australia

Abstract

The disproportionate representation of Aboriginal children in the New South Wales child protection system, and the way successive State policies have dismissed the significance of Aboriginal self-determination in the development and implementation of child protection policy is the focus of this thesis. The study analyses how policy discourses and policy processes have shaped Aboriginal child protection business in NSW, Australia. This thesis undertakes a close and detailed investigation into how the 2007 Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW represented Aboriginal people and issues generally, and Aboriginal families involved in the reforms of the NSW child protection system, specifically. It is the first Aboriginal centred policy analysis of these reforms to have been conducted. The thesis engages Carol Bacchi’s (2009) ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ (WPR) approach to analyse the policy reforms. The three texts subjected to close scrutiny are: the Submission from the Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat to the Inquiry (AbSec); the Report of the Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW (Wood Report) and the NSW Keep Them Safe - A shared approach to child wellbeing, (KTS) which represents the most recent extensive policy reform in child protection services in NSW. This thesis shows that the AbSec representation of the problem in the Wood Inquiry process was very different from that in the Wood Report and the KTS policy text. This suggests that possibilities for Aboriginal self-determination have been dismissed or diminished, and that Aboriginal people have been constrained despite opportunities for participation in policy processes. The findings highlight the need for an Aboriginal child protection framework that, instead of constraining the participation of Aboriginal people, enables Aboriginal people to determine policies for NSW Aboriginal child protection business.