Two year old girl allegedly raped in NT - systematic failure?

[Frank Bunn]

The Northern Territory Government has ordered an immediate investigation into its handling of the case of a two-year-old girl, who was hospitalised after she was allegedly raped in Tennant Creek last week.

The Northern Territory Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison and Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw addressed a crowd of angry community members in Tennant Creek on Wednesday, as crisis talks continue over a spike in crime in the region.

A 24-year-old man was remanded in custody on Tuesday after being charged with sexually assaulting the toddler.

The NT Government confirmed there had been multiple substantiated notifications made to Territory Families about the child in the months leading up to the incident.

In announcing the investigation in Darwin, Ms Manison said Territory Families would also be reviewing all files where children have had multiple notifications in the system.​

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-...eet-in-tennant-creek-over-crime-spike/9469166

The crime itself is abhorrent beyond words. But it is shocking that several notifications about the child were made to the authorities and not acted upon. Why was the child not removed from the family? Is it appropriate that the child has now been returned to the family?

How many more children have been known to be at risk but not protected?

Northern Territory Children's Commissioner Colleen Gwynne

In terms of child sexual abuse I think we've taken our foot off to a certain extent, particularly about what happens in remote communities​

Seriously, WTF?

In a week where we have been outraged by a mass shooting at a school in the USA this is going on in our own country. It's a national disgrace.

 

[HairyO]

Happens constantly. We only hear a very small percentage of it, because it doesnt fit with the view we are meant to have about traditional living.

So instead we let children and women suffer.

Perhaps another bridge walk is in order.

 

[Fat Yak]

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has had plenty to say about this.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
4 hrs ·
Yes Chief Minister Michael Gunner you have failed this child! Even when I’ve been screaming loudly about the need to protect our children for years you have ignored this! Even when I have met with your Minister to express my concerns regarding children not being removed by your department because your department thinks the child’s culture is more important then their life you have ignored this!

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/…/29cc33a39f0e9d12850ec1b4…

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
14 hrs ·
I have said it over and over again that a child’s life is far more important then anything else whether that be the child’s culture or kin! Those who complain about the high rates of removal of Aboriginal children fail to point out why this is happening. Those of us who push for children to be removed in order to save their lives are fighting an up hill battle.

The parents are failing their children and then the system is failing the children and this has to stop! The blood of our children is on the hands of those who want to keep pushing the ‘second stolen generation’ myth. This is the lost generation, the neglected generation and the abused generation right now. Lost to violence, sexual abuse, FASD and the list goes on. We’re supposed to be clever enough in this modern world to be able to protect the innocent but political correctness and stigma brought on by our countries history renders us useless to act on what is the right thing to do! The humans rights of the child must come first for once!!!

 

[Frank Bunn]

The problem of child abuse in remote communities is not new. The real question is why has it been allowed to persist?

Last year's Royal Commission mainly focused on the detention of children in the Northern Territory but it also looked at protection issues. It was highlighted that many reports of abuse were written off as “unsubstantiated” without investigation.

The former NT ombudsman Carolyn Ann Richards took the commission through parts of her 2011 report into the territory’s child protection system, launched after whistleblowers drew her attention to 17 children in need.

She discovered during her investigation that uninvestigated notifications of possible abuse or neglect were being finalised in the system.

She said a witness from the department of child protection’s central intake service told her: “At the end of three months after the notification had come in, if they hadn’t reached it because they were overloaded or if they hadn’t been able to contact the child or the family because they were moving around, or if it had been referred out to one of the regional work units and that work unit had not had time to reach it because it was overloaded, it was entered as ‘abuse/neglect not substantiated’.”

Richards earlier told the commission she found the intake serviceto be secretive, protective and withholding of information.

She had discovered more than 600 cases of “dummy forms” being entered straight into the final stage of the department system and recorded as needing “no further action”, covering up that the case had not been assessed or investigated.​

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...th-no-investigation-nt-royal-commission-hears

 

[Frank Bunn]

Also from the Royal Commission

Justice Hilary Hannam.

“It’s so far gone, so when they intervene it’s really at a very late stage … when the potential for early intervention is completely lost.”

Hannam described a young girl who had been subject of 10 notifications to child protection services, none of which met the threshold for action.

One such notification occurred when the four-year-old turned up to school for her first day months after the term started with a “large head injury” and smelling of faeces.

“That wasn’t seen as meeting the threshold for harm,” said Hannam.

Several further incidents, including an alleged indecent assault, were reported but not pursued – the assault because staff felt “there was insufficient evidence for the suspect to be charged”.

Some months later the girl presented to emergency with a broken arm, and doctors suspected the injury was older than the family alleged. The girl was “basically abandoned” at the hospital by family but there was still no investigation for another two weeks when she developed a bone infection.​

https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-is-fragmented-and-under-resourced-judge-says

 

[radiojake]

The problem of child abuse in society is not new. The real question is why has it been allowed to persist?

fixed that for you

 

[HairyO]

fixed that for you

Yeah gloss over the fact that an Aboriginal girl is about 20 times more likely to be abused.

Your response is exactly why nothing gets done. The PC brigade stick their head in the sand and dream about the noble savage.

 

[Fat Yak]

Thank you HairyO. Nothing can be done while the dopey "white" left feel they have to stand up and protect most primitive race on earth and we will never bring Aborigines into the Western fold by denying that and convincing them they are victimised.

Indigenous woman and former member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Bess Price and her daughter Jacinta Price know a lot about abuse. Only last month Bess defended Jacinta from vicious online attacks. What had outraged the offenders? Well, Jacinta had publicly stated we should continue to celebrate Australia Day on January 26. Bess did not hold back, slamming those “who want to remain in their victimhood mentality”.

“I’m appalled,” she said. “All the ‘Welcome to Country’, all the ‘smoking ceremonies’ and all the made up bullshit rituals about ‘pay our respects to elders past and present’ is just one big lie! Shame shame shame!”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/op...e/news-story/70f56e872e91cd70af76d54d15fcda40

 

[radiojake]

Yeah gloss over the fact that an Aboriginal girl is about 20 times more likely to be abused.

You wanna pull the stats out on that for me?

The whole NT intervention was started on a similar premise which turned out to be bullshit


This thread only exists because it's taking a pot shot on indigenous communities - look at the OP and everyone else who has posted


- Also Mr Fatty I don't feel the need to stand up and protect anyone - I can just see through bullshit agendas like the OP

You guys may have to start quoting some new people who don't have a surname Price (and that doesn't mean Pearson either)

 

[HairyO]

You wanna pull the stats out on that for me?

The whole NT intervention was started on a similar premise which turned out to be bullshit


This thread only exists because it's taking a pot shot on indigenous communities - look at the OP and everyone else who has posted


- Also Mr Fatty I don't feel the need to stand up and protect anyone - I can just see through bullshit agendas like the OP

You guys may have to start quoting some new people who don't have a surname Price (and that doesn't mean Pearson either)

Happy to sit by and let children get abused because white people are evil and intervention is always wrong. Its clear the type of person you are.

https://thewest.com.au/news/reality-of-aboriginal-child-abuse-far-worse-ng-ya-103684

http://theconversation.com/factchec...ely-than-average-to-experience-violence-61809

As for the intervention, the finding was the sexual abuse cases were lower. Not abuse. So as long as Aboriginal women and kids are only being beaten or neglected in massive numbers its okay, we just get upset at the point they get raped?

Is that your thinking?

 

[radiojake]

Jesus christ -yeh I'm totally happy for kids to get abused - fmd

What do you guys think posting links on bigfooty is doing something?

 

[nobbyiscool]

10 posts.

That's all it took to prove that this board is nowhere ******* near mature enough to discuss such sensitive subject matter.

Why is this even in the "Australian Politics" board? All it does is encourage some of BF's lowest pieces of s**t to use a 2 year old to try and score political points.

 

[Pie eyed]

Happens constantly. We only hear a very small percentage of it, because it doesnt fit with the view we are meant to have about traditional living.

So instead we let children and women suffer.

Perhaps another bridge walk is in order.

Basically just lazy Governemnt, local and Federal.
Federally they all spend their time fighting to burn more coal

 

[HairyO]

Basically just lazy Governemnt, local and Federal.
Federally they all spend their time fighting to burn more coal

Um. Sure.

Lets gloss over the fact that Aboriginal men are raping women and children and abusing women and children at a very high rate/

Blame GUVMINT !

 

[Pie eyed]

Um. Sure.

Lets gloss over the fact that Aboriginal men are raping women and children and abusing women and children at a very high rate/

Blame GUVMINT !

I don't think I'm glossing over anything.
This should not have happened.
Who do you think was responsible for not following up on the numerous warnings about the specific family and their issues with drugs and alcohol?
It's a disgrace and is reprehensible that our society continues to let these things "slip past' while the political focus is on maintaining idiocy?
Who should have done something?
Smart arse.

Write it down.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

That's all it took to prove that this board is nowhere ******* near mature enough to discuss such sensitive subject matter.

Curious response.

There's a significant deference to Aboriginal Culture nationwide that directly contributes to these sort of issues - particularly when it comes to juvenile justice and child protection.

The idea that a child who has been through this sort of abuse could be re-housed in the same home should be abhorrent to any observer.

 

[Crankyhawk]

You wanna pull the stats out on that for me?

The whole NT intervention was started on a similar premise which turned out to be bullshit


This thread only exists because it's taking a pot shot on indigenous communities - look at the OP and everyone else who has posted


- Also Mr Fatty I don't feel the need to stand up and protect anyone - I can just see through bullshit agendas like the OP

You guys may have to start quoting some new people who don't have a surname Price (and that doesn't mean Pearson either)

Skimming this report (child abuse and family violence statsitics 2015-16)

Nationally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were almost seven times more likely to be the subject of substantiated reports than non-Indigenous children (with rates of 43.6 per 1,000 children compared with 6.4 per 1,000 respectively)

https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/child-abuse-and-neglect-statistics

I can see that child protection could have been in a difficult spot here - the news reports (yes, may not be whole truth) say that previous notifications were around alcohol misuse in front of children and domestic violence.

If we applied this level of threshold to removal, we would remove a lot of children (based on white ribbon stats, one in four children are exposed to domestic violence (that's whole population); and DV rates for indigenous women and girls are 35 times more than general population.

Can you imagine the cries of another "stolen generation" if we did this?

 

[Crankyhawk]

10 posts.

That's all it took to prove that this board is nowhere ******* near mature enough to discuss such sensitive subject matter.

Why is this even in the "Australian Politics" board? All it does is encourage some of BF's lowest pieces of s**t to use a 2 year old to try and score political points.

There does seem to be unnecessary pot shotting at posters based on partisan lines. Quite pathetic.

 

[Frank Bunn]

You wanna pull the stats out on that for me?

The whole NT intervention was started on a similar premise which turned out to be bullshit

There has been 714 cases of sexual offence involving children under the age of 16 during the past five years in the Northern Territory, police revealed on Thursday.

Already there have been 10 this year.​

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-...rnment-to-address-tennant-creek-abuse/9473002

Other indicators suggest that these departmental figures may under-estimate child abuse and neglect more among Indigenous children than among non-Indigenous children (for example, Gordon, Hallahan and Henry 2002; Memmott et al. 2001). The Robertson Report (2000: xiii) stated: 'Violence is now overt; murders, bashings and rapes, including sexual violence against children, have reached epidemic proportions with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people being perpetrators.'

Statistics from the Western Australian criminal justice system reveal that in 2000, the rate of reports to police of sexual assault of Indigenous girls was approximately double that of non-Indigenous girls (Ferrante and Fernandez 2002, reported in Gordon, Hallahan and Henry 2002). Yet it is estimated that less than 30 per cent of sexual assaults on children are actually reported to police and that this reporting rate is lower in Indigenous communities than non-Indigenous communities. Further, it was noted in the Robertson Report (2000) that 88 per cent of all rapes in Indigenous communities go unreported. Thus, it would appear that the documented extent of assault in Indigenous communities is just the tip of the iceberg.​

https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/child-abuse-and-neglect-indigenous-australian-communities

 

[Frank Bunn]

I can see that child protection could have been in a difficult spot here - the news reports (yes, may not be whole truth) say that previous notifications were around alcohol misuse in front of children and domestic violence.

If we applied this level of threshold to removal, we would remove a lot of children (based on white ribbon stats, one in four children are exposed to domestic violence (that's whole population); and DV rates for indigenous women and girls are 35 times more than general population.

A lot of children are removed for reasons of alcohol abuse - because they are being neglected. The Tennant Creek publican is reported to have commented
“I’ve seen a five-year-old pushing a one-year-old in a pram and asking if their mother is inside. My staff and I are constantly looking for parents and bringing them out because a five-year-old is telling me their mother and father is in there drinking and there’s a baby at home crying.”

If that happened in a Melbourne suburb the police would be rushing to pick those children up, handing them to social services and the story would be on the front page of the newspapers.

For this particular case Territory Families has confirmed the department received 21 notifications about the household dating back to August 2015, but only six had been substantiated. "Only six" substantiated still sounds like a lot to me. And as I mentioned earlier last year's Royal Commission highlighted that many reports of abuse were written off as “unsubstantiated” without investigation.

Can you imagine the cries of another "stolen generation" if we did this?

I don't think it would happen because there would be much clearer evidence now as to why children were removed from their families.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Can you imagine the cries of another "stolen generation" if we did this?

Spoke too soon. Victorian Greens MP for Northcote, Lidia Thorpe .

17,000 children in out-of-home-care across the country. It’s just ludicrous. Saying sorry says that you’re not going to do it again and we still continue to see our children being ripped out their mothers’ arms.
​

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/mornings/lidia-thorpe-sorry-day/9429602

 

[King Brown]

What if the Stolen Generation was the right thing to do?

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

This thread was always going to end up a plebiscite on the worth of Aboriginal people.

Sexual assault of children deserves more respect than this nonsense.

 

[Rob]

This thread was always going to end up a plebiscite on the worth of Aboriginal people.

Sexual assault of children deserves more respect than this nonsense.

It just ends up in an ideological shitfight. Pick the best narrative that proves their pre-existing opinion.

Whoever actually does propose a reasonable solution will be inevitably howled down by either or both sides.

 

[Frank Bunn]

This thread was always going to end up a plebiscite on the worth of Aboriginal people.

I've tried to stick to the reported facts about the case, and information from various government enquiries. There are two sides to it. The high incidence of child abuse in remote communities. And that there are Aboriginal people absolutely crying out for change in their communities but the government agencies have let them down.

Sexual assault of children deserves more respect than this nonsense.

Strange then that there was no thread started before this, and no involvement ITT from all the people that were so concerned about sexual abuse in the Catholic church.