Senator’s call on Top End children

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has called for child protection to become a federal responsibility as she levelled serious allegations about the Northern Territory's system of kinship care.

The Country Liberal senator claimed foster parents have told her Territory Families are putting kids back in the hands of abusers, during a television interview in which she doubled down on her opposition for the Voice to parliament.

Senator Price said she had “no reason” to believe the foster parents’ allegations were untrue, as she had heard them “over and over”.

“I’m talking about foster carers who are also Indigenous, who have come to me with these grave concerns,” she said.

“So this is why we need a royal commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children.”

The allegations were categorically rejected by NT Police Minister Kate Worden just hours later, who called for the senator to provide evidence to back up her claims.

“Kinship care is not a system that places children back into communities or into households with their perpetrators,” she said.

“You can’t just claim these things and then walk away. This is classic, drop a bomb walk away. She needs to come forward and make some declarations around what evidence she has that supports that view.”

The Northern Territory senator, and former Alice Springs deputy mayor, is speculated to be a frontrunner to be appointed to the Coalition frontbench to replace Julian Leeser – who quit in order to support the Voice referendum.

Senator Nampijinpa Price is a longtime opponent of the referendum, which would enshrine an Indigenous advisory body in the Constitution, claiming the proposal would racially divide Australia.