Child abuse ‘everyone’s business’

ATTITUDES need to be changed to realise that protecting children from abuse is everyone’s responsibility, says New South Wales Community Services Minister, L Linda Burney.

New figures show that violence against children has remained mostly unchanged, but the community is unwilling to report abuse.

According to the latest NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, from April 2009 to March 2010, there were over 20,458 violent assaults against children, down only 117 on last year.

About 70 per cent of the assaults, which include murder, domestic violence, sexual assault and robbery, were committed by a person known to the child.

To mark National Child Protection Week which began yesterday (Father’s Day), Ms Burney and Police Minister, Michael Day, have urged people to make children’s wellbeing is everybody’s business.

“It’s not an issue where you can just walk away and say, ‘I don’t want to be involved’,” Ms Burney says.

“But we’re talking about children that are being hurt.

“What we’re really requiring not only among government agencies, but also across the community, is a real cultural shift about taking responsibility for all children in your neighbourhood, in your family.

“A recent survey by (the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect) NAPCAN found that less than 50 per cent of Australians would take action to protect a child who they believed was being abused and just one-third would call the police if a child told them they were being sexually abused,” Ms Burney says.
“When asked why they wouldn’t act, 48 per cent said it was because they feared they may be wrong, 44 per cent said it was because of possible consequences for themselves and 42 per cent because it’s not their business.
“These figures are alarming. I want to say loud and clear that protecting children is everyone’s business, whether you’re a neighbour, teacher, parent or relative.”
Ms Burney reminded parents to be vigilant when leaving their children with someone, even if they are known to the family.
“It’s horrifying to contemplate but children are more likely to be harmed by someone they know than by a stranger,” she says.
“In the past year, 70 per cent of violent offences against children were committed by a relative, parent, partner or someone known to the family.”
Mr Daley says it is essential that everyone, especially parents and relatives, knows the signs of abuse and listens to children who seek help.
“It is crucial that adults take any mention of abuse by a child seriously, and reports the matter to police,” he says.
“I’d also ask parents and relatives to teach children that abuse is never okay, and therefore encourage them to report such crimes if they occur.
“The NSW Police Force takes all reports of child abuse extremely seriously.
“But people need to report the crime to police, and encourage those children who are victimised, to come forward so that police can put these offenders behind bars where they belong.
“Reporting a child abuser means police can stop the abuse from occurring, and prevent the offender from assaulting other victims in the future,” says Mr Daley.
NAPCAN CEO, Rosanna Martinello, says the broader community must share responsibility for keeping children safe.
Ms Martinello offered simple tips on what people can do to help protect children:
Take the time to get to know families in your street, so that you recognise if they are under pressure and need a hand;
Learn the signs of child abuse and neglect so that you can take action if you suspect something is amiss by contacting www.community.nsw.gov.au; and,
Teach children how to keep themselves safe and listen when a child tries to tell you something – sometimes children who have experienced abuse may try to tell an adult several times before someone hears them.
Ms Burney says people should consider becoming a foster carer to provide a safe haven for children who cannot live safely at home, for the short- or the long-term.
For more information on fostering, visit www.fosteringnsw.com.au and for more tips on protecting children, visit www.napcan.org.au

Indigenous health record ‘appalling’

A UNITED Nations’ conference of world aid workers in Melbourne has been told of Australia’s “appalling” record on indigenous health.

Aboriginal health campaigner, Barbara Flick Nicol, who has extensive experience in indigenous health initiatives including as an adviser to the Australian Medical Association (AMA), said the nation was lagging well behind other countries with similar “colonial experiences”.

“In countries such as Canada and . . . New Zealand, people have made many gains,” Ms Flick Nicol told delegates at the UN Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organisation (DPI/NGO) conference.

“And yet we still sit in a situation where the gap between our life expectancy and (that of) non-indigenous Australians nationally is thought to be 17 years,” she said.

“In one community where I worked, the life expectancy of Aboriginal men . . . is 38 years. This is an appalling situation for a developed country to find itself in.”

Ms Flick Nicol gave a speech during the opening ceremony at the 63rd Annual UN DPI/NGO conference. The summit of about 1400 delegates, representatives of more than 300 NGOs operating in the world’s most impoverished nations, is focused on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – ambitious targets for reducing global poverty by 2015.

Ms Flick Nicol said that too often “bureaucratic processes” got in the way of the rollout of health services by NGOs in remote Australia that could have boosted Australia’s domestic efforts to meet its commitment to the MDGs.

“I want to throw out a challenge, a serious challenge, to the government of Australia: to put more effort into reaching the Millennium Development Goals,” the Aboriginal woman of the Yawallyi nation said.

“I also want to throw out a challenge to my own people: that we need to stop our alcohol abuse, our abuse of our children, our cigarette smoking, and all of the things that endanger our health.

“And all the money in the world can’t change (that) if we can’t take responsibility for ourselves.”

Re-offending rates are up: prison study

A STUDY of Australia’s prison population has found young men and those from indigenous backgrounds are most likely to have more than one spell in gaol.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) study, covering prison census data from 1994 to 2007, found the rate of recidivism leading to added gaol time was roughly steady, with about 56 per cent of prisoners having done a period in prison by 2007.
Over the period of the study, prison populations increased by an average of 3.7 per cent a year.
The proportion of men in the gaol system varied from 92 to 94 per cent over the 13 years of the study, while the number of indigenous prisoners varied between 18 and 21 per cent.
But the number of prisoners being gaoled after previously serving a prison sentence rose by 3.2 per cent over the same period.
“Re-imprisonment was strongly associated with being young, being indigenous or having been previously imprisoned,” the ABS report said.

“To a lesser extent, re-imprisonment was also associated with being male.”
The re-imprisonment rate was highest in the Northern Territory, where about 68 per cent of prisoners had been gaoled before.
This was blamed on the demographics of its prisoners, many of whom were young men, the report said.
“In all jurisdictions except Queensland, prisoners released in recent years were more likely to be re-imprisoned than prisoners released in the mid-1990s,” it said.
Almost 60 per cent of all prisoners released in the three years to June 1997 had not been sent to gaol again before June 30, 2007, the report found.
Those gaoled for serious offences, including those involving illicit drugs, sex offences and road traffic offences, were much more likely to return to gaol for similar offences.