A report tabled in the Northern Territory parliament on Tuesday has highlighted "confronting" and "heartbreaking" failures within the child protection sector, leading up to the alleged murder of five-year-old Warlpiri girl Kumanjayi Little Baby. The child was found dead in April, five days after her alleged abduction from Alice Springs.
The independent review, commissioned by the NT government and conducted by Karen Webb and Greg Shanahan, found "serious gaps between what the law required of the department, and how the law was applied," according to Minister for Children and Families Robyn Cahill. These gaps included policy, process, and the assessment of risk to children.
The report noted that Kumanjayi Little Baby's family was known to the department before her birth. A safety plan implemented when she was 17 weeks old relied on adults from the family's network, but the review found no evidence of police or background checks on these individuals. One of these adults was later found to have a "long and violent criminal history," including five counts of threat-to-kill.
Minister Cahill stated that the NT government has accepted all 45 recommendations made by the report.