Child Protection in Australia and New Zealand

Abstract

Abstract This chapter delivers an overview of child protection services in Australia and New Zealand. Both nations’ main concern primarily revolves around numerous reports of children at risk and the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) children in Australia and Māori children in New Zealand. In Australia, child protection legislation, policy and practice processes are mostly similar across states and territories and differ in terms of reporting, investigation, and interventions for a child in either risk or need of protection and care. On the other hand, New Zealand’s whangai system was eroded due to state intervention to protect children and westernized laws governing adoption and welfare. The over-representation of Indigenous children living away from their whanau sparked major reform of the country’s child protection system.