Breaking: Kumanjayi Little Baby review finds extensive failings

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the image of an Indigenous person who has died, used with the permission of her family.

An independent review into the Northern Territory child protection department's conduct surrounding Kumanjayi Little Baby before her alleged murder has revealed extensive failings, with a final report calling for a "system-wide reset" of the department's function.

Former New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb and long-time senior NT public servant Greg Shanahan conducted the three-month review, tabling their final report with 45 recommendations in NT parliament this morning.

The review was commissioned by NT Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill in April, weeks after five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby was allegedly abducted and murdered by Jefferson Lewis, 47.

Lewis is yet to enter a plea and will return to the Alice Springs Local Court in December.

The report says Kumanjayi Little Baby's family had been known to the Department of Children and Families (DCF) since her mother was pregnant with her, receiving 14 notifications over six years about the little girl's exposure to domestic and family violence.

They "predominantly" involved Kumanjayi Little Baby's father, the report says, covering verbal and physical violence, breaches of domestic violence orders and coercive and controlling behaviour against her mother.

In tabling the report in parliament this morning, Ms Cahill, who was wearing Kumanjayi Little Baby's favourite colour, pink, said the report's findings were "confronting" and "heartbreaking".

She said the department rated Kumanjayi Little Baby's safety as two out of a score of 10, and found "no signs of safety" following an incident in August 2022 where her mother was assaulted and then 16-month-old Kumanjayi Little Baby was struck to the head.

"For 229 days the case remained open with no tangible improved outcome for Kumanjayi Little Baby, in spite of a further assessment done in January, 2023, which noted her vulnerability and an increasing level of concern," Ms Cahill said.

She told parliament that no domestic and family violence risk assessment was carried out despite "the escalating pattern of violence that she was being exposed to".

"In short, the system in place did not support recognition of the risk this placed Kumanjayi Little Baby in," Ms Cahill said.

The review also found there was a lack of due diligence from DCF around family members relied on to protect Kumanjayi Little Baby's mother and her two children.

An adult residing at a Yuendumu house which her mother used for safety had a long criminal history of violence including five counts of threaten to kill, the report says.

"DCF ... advised that it does not routinely undertake formal checks, such as police history or intelligence checks, on people nominated by families to form part of the natural network," the report reads.

Failings widespread across DCF

The report states DCF's failings regarding Kumanjayi Little Baby are emblematic of widespread issues across the department, saying her circumstances "cannot be considered solely as an individual case management failure".

"The issues identified by the review point to a number of broader and interconnected shortcomings in the child protection system," the report reads.

Ms Webb and Mr Shanahan also said their review did not find evidence "of a sufficiently clear, consistent and effective child protection framework operating across DCF".

The reviewers call for a "system-wide reset" of DCF, saying its leaders need to lead a transition away from a "predominantly reactive model of responding to notifications of harm."

Ms Cahill said since becoming the child protection minister, she had received multiple "heartbreaking" briefs about children who had been taken into care.

"Children exposed to situations that no child should ever have to witness, not once or even twice but multiple times," she told parliament.

"As I reviewed the history of these children, disturbingly I found a recurrent pattern. 

"Serious gaps between what the law required of the Department and how that law was applied. 

"Gaps in policy, in process, and most critically, gaps in how risk to children was being assessed. 

"In file after file, I found children with notification after notification after notification. Thirty. Forty. Sixty. Eighty."

Ms Cahill tabled the report in NT parliament today and accepted all 45 recommendations in full.