Family Matters is Australia’s only annual report led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that monitors government removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from families and examines what governments are doing to turn the tide on over-representation.

Family Matters 2025 is the tenth edition of the report. This year’s message is clear: invest in families, not crisis. The 2025 edition of the report warns that Australia’s child protection systems continue to prioritise late, punitive interventions rather than the early supports that families need to stay strong and together and that, despite years of commitments to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care, progress has stalled.

For more than a decade, Family Matters has amplified calls from communities for accountability and contributed to real change, increased transparency about children and families’ experiences in the child protection system and helped drive national reform, including playing a key role in the establishment of the National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People.

Family Matters 2025 shows what works. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled early intervention, prevention and family support programs that keep children safe and connected to kin, community, Country and culture. Case studies throughout the report demonstrate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led services are strengthening families, keeping children connected to culture and improving lifelong health, learning and wellbeing. However, these proven solutions remain critically underfunded while crisis-driven systems continue to receive the bulk of funding.

Key Findings in 2025

Family Matters Report 2025 finds that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children continue to be disproportionately represented at all stages of child protection systems across Australia; systems that fail to keep children safe and connected to family, community and culture.

Family Matters 2025 finds that:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 9.6× more likely to be in out-of-home care or on third-party parental responsibility orders than non-Indigenous children.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants are 8.9× more likely to be placed in out-of-home care than non-Indigenous infants.
• Only 7.3% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care or on third-party parental responsibility orders were reunified with family, compared to 10.1% of non-Indigenous children.
• 37.6% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children exited out-of-home care to other circumstances, including independent living, homelessness and detention.
• Only 15.6% of total child protection expenditure was spent on family support services, meaning roughly 16 cents of every $1 is invested in prevention.
• Nationally (excluding WA), only 6.8% of child protection spending was directed to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations, with most jurisdictions spending under 10% of their child protection budgets through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.
• 32.1% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care were placed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander relatives/kin.