Know Your Rights: Navigating the NSW Child Protection System & Finding Supports
A resource built by mob in New South Wales to stand up for our rights and keep our kids strong, safe and connected to family.
A trusted and accessible online resource
This project aims to create a trusted and accessible online resource to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, families, and communities as they navigate the New South Wales child protection system. The Know Your Rights project and website is being designed to provide culturally safe, practical, and empowering information to help families understand their rights, advocate for their children, and make informed decisions.
“My biggest mistake, and if I could ever help a family that even is getting the slightest feeling that they're going to get looked at, your best bet is to go get legal advice straightaway.
Because they (DCJ) don't give you nothing. There is nothing in place."
- Parent, BTHKTH research
Who is this for?
This resource will be for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, families, and communities navigating the NSW child protection system. It may also support Aboriginal children and young people, Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs), non-Indigenous parents, workers/practitioners, and students who want to better understand how to advocate within the system.
Why do we need it?
Far too often, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are kept in the dark about how the NSW child protection system works and what their rights are. Families told us that:
"They make you believe that they can do whatever they want, and you've got no rights. I still to this day don't even know my rights. No one actually has ever told me what my rights were at that time and what should have happened."
- Parent, BTHKTH research
"I suppose our saying has always been we've always had a chain, and we believe if we keep that chain strong and the link don't break, we're okay."
- Parent, BTHKTH research
"She's been very vocal about wanting to come home since the day she was removed... On her lunchbreaks she was going into the library and finding out her own rights."
- Parent, BTHKTH research
"...stand up for yourself, you're allowed to push for what you want... you really have to speak up even if you don't get anywhere at least you've pushed for it."
- Parent, BTHKTH research
The NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) says that restoration is a priority, but Aboriginal families report a different experience – the rates of restoration for our children is still very low. Restoration is rare, especially for children taken into care under the age of two. Families are over-surveilled, under-informed, and left to navigate a system without a map.
Know Your Rights is our response.
It is about arming families with knowledge, tools, and community voices to advocate for their children and demand accountability. When families understand how the system works, they can better fight for their rights and their children’s futures.
Over the past decade, First Nations children placed in out-of-home care has increased 48% in NSW, with less than half returning to their birth parents. The NSW reunification rate is just 15.2% for over 1,000 Aboriginal children and young people over the same time period.
How did Know Your Rights start?
The idea for a ‘Know Your Rights’ resource came from the Waminda – the South Coast Women’s Health and Welfare Corporation, an Aboriginal Community– Controlled Health Organisation. The project is developed in a collaboration of AbSec and the Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research initiative at UNSW’s Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC).
The resource has been directly informed by the BTHKTH research and is grounded in community-led research and lived experience. It draws on:
- Interviews with Aboriginal parents and family members with experience of the child protection system and restoration processes.
- Interviews and focus groups with ACCOs and practitioners across the state.
- Information gathering and reviews with partner organisations & relevant stakeholders.
- Information gathering and reviews done with parents from the research.
What is the Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home research?
The Bring Them Home, Keep Them Home (BTHKTH) research is led by Associate Professor BJ Newton. The research investigates the rates, outcomes and experiences of successful and sustainable restoration for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. This research is making significant impact across the child protection sector, facilitating truth telling for families silenced by the system, Aboriginal community-determined initiatives, and individual and system-level advocacy.
The research conducted by the BTHKTH team found that the chances of restoration for Aboriginal children after being on permanent care orders is very low, particularly for children who enter care under two years of age. Despite consistent assertions from child protection authorities that restoration of children to their family is prioritised in policy and practice, this research found that this is not reflected in restoration rates or the experiences of parents, families, caseworkers or children and young people.
Despite policy priorities to the contrary, few Aboriginal children are considered for restoration. This research indicates that once on final orders, restoration of Aboriginal children to their parents is highly unlikely.
Through this research, the website will include information and resources like:
- How the system should be working and what DCJ should be doing.
- Aboriginal community and parents' rights embedded in laws and policies.
- What each step in the child protection system is and what this means.
- Options for what you can do at each step in the system.
- Voices and experiences of other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents.
- Journals for creating your own evidence through documentation.
What do we hope to achieve?
Our hope is that if parents have this resource to refer to, then they may have a bit more power in trying to fight for what they know is right. We aspire for the resource to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children stay with their families and communities or return home to them.
When will it be ready? The Know Your Rights website will be live and ready to use in early 2026.
View our upcoming events
Navigating the System: Co-Creating the Know Your Rights Website
- 9 June 2025, 10:00am-11:00am
- Online via Microsoft Teams
Stay Connected with Know Your Rights
Your voice matters — stay connected and be part of this important work.
By signing up, you’ll be the first to:
- Receive the webinar link and event updates.
- Be invited to future yarning sessions and community events.
- Get early access to resources and tools.
- Stay informed about the official launch in 2026.
- Share feedback and shape the resource as it grows.
We welcome families, carers, community workers, advocates, and anyone passionate about supporting Aboriginal children and families.
For any questions, please email policy@absec.org.au.