Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth say they are “extremely concerned” by the findings of a nationwide CBA investigation that revealed that children were being raped and abandoned in the government attention.
Key points:
- More than 700 people came forward as part of a national CBA investigation into child protection, many of whom filed shocking allegations of abuse and neglect.
- Attorney General Mark Dreyfus says he is “deeply concerned about the horrific cases discovered across the country.”
- He and the Minister of Social Services have contacted the National Commissioner for Children
Dreyfus and Ms Rishworth said they had contacted the National Commissioner for Children to see what steps could be taken to protect the children in care.
More than 700 people came forward as part of the child protection research, revealing that some children were at risk of more harm to their care than before.
More than 200 of them were current and former child protection workers with an intimate knowledge of how the system works. Some alleged misconduct in the department and manipulation of statistics on foster children.
National Commissioner for Children Anne Hollonds has also reacted to the investigation, saying the system is “really fighting” for its purpose of protecting children and “desperately needs reform”.
“Actually, this system, a lot, a lot of people would argue that it’s broken and it really needs urgent attention,” he said.
“It’s amazing how often you hear these stories.
“These are the most vulnerable children in this country and they have been removed from their families for their own safety and unfortunately we find that they have been abused or harmed in various ways within the system that was supposed to protect them.
“And again, this is a sign that this system is in dire need of reform.”
National Commissioner for Children Ann Hollonds says child protection system needs “urgent” care (ABC News: Greg Bigelow)
He has called for national leadership on this issue.
“We need to have national leadership for child welfare so that children are a national political priority,” Ms Hollonds said.
“When it comes to specific child protection departments and systems, there needs to be very clear responsibilities that they have to ensure the well-being of the children in their care.”
Dreyfus said he had heard the commissioner’s concerns.
“I am deeply concerned about the horrific cases discovered across the country of child abuse in care,” he said.
“I have contacted the National Commissioner for Children and will talk to her about her concerns and what actions we can take to protect the children in her care.”
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said all families deserved access to “well-integrated” services. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Ms Rishworth said families deserved to have access to “well-integrated” services.
“The issues raised about child abuse in care are extremely worrying,” he said.
“I will join the Attorney General and the National Commissioner for Children in a meeting to ensure that all children in their care are safe and secure.”
System that causes “more damage”
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy says there is “more to be done.” (ABC News: Che Chorley)
Deputy Minister of Indigenous Affairs Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said she was “unfortunately” not surprised by the revelations.
“I think that’s the biggest disappointment here, that this is not new,” he said.
“There are families in this country who have known this for a long time. There is more to do.”
He said in his new role he would investigate what could be done to protect indigenous children.
In a statement, the top indigenous body SNAICC said it was clear that the system does not protect children and instead “causes more damage.”
“Governments know what the solutions are to keep children safe. But there seems to be no real will to implement them,” he said.
“They break our hearts,” the ministers replied
Tasmanian Women and Disability Services Minister Jo Palmer said the stories were heartbreaking.
“It simply came to our notice then that our stomachs were only sinking. [ABC] research, “he said.
“These are awkward stories that break our hearts and we know that we need to work harder in this space.
“We have failed children. Our Prime Minister has come out and said that we know this has happened in the past, and now we must move forward and make sure where we failed in the past we will not fail in the past. Future.
“This must be an effort by the whole community to find these solutions, all levels of government, all parts of our community.”
New South Wales Women’s Security Minister Natalie Ward said it was “terrible to hear these stories”.
“My heart is with these families,” he said.
“We will always address these issues in an absolute way and I appreciate a very thorough investigation into these allegations.
“It’s important that the police do their job and that the victim-survivors have good support in their journey.”
When asked what he planned to do with his newly elected government, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his ministers had been sworn in less than two weeks ago.
“We will address the variety of issues we are facing,” he said.
“One of the things we find, frankly, is that we inherit a trillion dollars in debt, we inherit crises in various areas because of negligence, in some cases deliberate negligence, in other cases just incompetence.”
‘Lack of implementation’ by departments
Ms. Hollonds was a child protection worker in the 1980s. He said that although efforts had been made since then to try to meet the needs of children and indigenous families, progress had been too slow.
Lines of support for sexual assault and domestic violence:
“It’s quite shocking for me to find out, 40 years later, that relatively little has changed,” he said.
“[The child protection] The system is really overwhelmed because the other systems desperately need reform, and by that I mean early intervention systems.
“Families struggling, families in poverty, children living at a disadvantage; I feel directly for them that they can’t get the help they need when they need it and that things are getting worse and worse.”
Ms Hollonds said her office had gone through child welfare reports published over the past 10 years and found that many of the 2,500 recommendations made over the decade were repeated, pointing to the lack of implementation.
“What was remarkable about these recommendations is the frequency with which they are repeated in different reports, which really underscores the strength of the findings,” he said.
“We have this weight of evidence that exists, the problem is that it is not being implemented.
“We need to investigate what the barriers are to implementing the evidence.”
Posted 4 hours, 4 hours ago, Monday, June 20, 2022 at 4:35 AM, updated 59 minutes ago, 59 minutes ago, Monday, June 20, 2022 at 7:43 AM