Trapped from conception

A youth sniffs petrol in the Northern Territory. Photo: John Donegan, The Age

Children born and raised in a “culture of smoking and drinking”  are trapped in an iceberg with a tip  of child abuse and neglect — identified in a report handed to the Northern Territory Government this week.

Writes Russell  Skelton in today’s Age:

KON Vatskalis, the Northern Territory’s hapless minister for children and families, admits he will have to tear down the system for protecting Aboriginal children from abuse and neglect, and start again. ”The department has been demoralised … we are now going to rebuild from scratch and we have to leave the old ideologies [of child protection] at the door,” he says.

This is a startling admission of failure. In the three years since the biggest federal intervention in 50 years, the territory government and local agencies are still struggling to come to terms with the endemic mistreatment of children in remote and urban communities.

The widespread sexual and physical abuse of indigenous children in the territory was identified three years ago by the Howard government as the nation’s hurricane Katrina. This week, following another government report, Growing Them Strong, it was labelled a typhoon of official neglect.

Shocked by the inquiry’s findings of bureaucratic bungling, Vatskalis and the territory’s Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, are offering few excuses. They admit to being overwhelmed by the scale and dimension of abuse and neglect revealed and are promising immediate action.

While details of abuse are too often shrouded in bureaucratic and court-imposed security, incidents revealed by prosecutors and coroners over recent years have included hideous incidents of rape, murder, stabbing and drowning. Many of the incidents have occurred in remote places awash with alcohol and drugs and where illicit gambling disrupts proper parenting and nurturing.

When the Alice Springs prosecutor Dr Nanette Rogers detailed a number of horrific cases of child cruelty – many involving the rape, murder and bashing of children and babies – she lifted the lid on a brutal unreported culture created by petrol sniffing and booze.

Figures published in this week’s landmark inquiry into the territory’s child protection system underscore the territory’s systemic failure to protect its children. Between January and July this year , an average of 797 cases each month were not being investigated. It remains unclear how many remain ”in danger”, or living in families where threats to their safety are of concern to authorities.

To read the full the article, go to The Age newspaper.