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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-05-06 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

CHILDREN IN STATE CARE INQUIRY

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:08): Today I place on the record the opposition's appreciation of Commissioner Mullighan and his team for the presentation to the South Australian parliament of the Children on the APY Lands Commission of Inquiry Report. We appreciate that the terms of reference, although isolated to the APY lands geographically, was an intense and probably most gruelling experience for Mr Mullighan and members of his team. We thank them sincerely for that report which, although due on 31 December, has now been presented to the government and tabled here today.

Of 1,000 children, 140 cases of serious suspicion of sexual abuse have been identified in this report in just 10 months. One of the concerns that the opposition has is that, although the government is quick to say that this has not come from the children themselves identifying this or from the evidence of perpetrators; what it has come from is Commissioner Mullighan's assessment having conducted the inquiry and the investigation.

It is important to note the government's lack of understanding that, under child protection law, with its legal and moral obligation to protect these children, this is not a case of waiting and simply further investigating other lands. Whether or not the government has information from the victims or their family members who come forward to provide the evidence in the hearing, there is a much greater obligation under child protection law than simply waiting for them to do so, and it is absolutely imperative that the government understand its responsibility in this regard.

There are hundreds of other children living in isolated communities in South Australia, extending from the Western Australian border down to the Coorong and to the South-East. We have other Aboriginal settlements in exactly the same circumstances of isolation. We cannot wait months or years, and we should not be waiting even weeks, to investigate those areas.

In Western Australia and in the Northern Territory, irrespective of the view that may be taken as to the mode of intervention, ultimately, at least in those two regions of Australia they have taken the action. They have gone into all of these lands and they have identified that problem. That is how serious it is.

The second thing I note today is the Premier's announcement that his government has put police and child protection workers back onto the land. Well, of course, previous governments had people undertaking these duties, working at Marla particularly just outside the lands. Every one of these people has a responsibility under child protection law, and here I include every doctor, registered nurse, enrolled nurse, dentist, minister of religion, social worker and departmental and local government employee who is at all involved with health, welfare, education, sporting and recreational services for children.

There are hundreds of people who both work and live on the lands, or who travel through there regularly. Nearly 3,000 people comprise that community in Central Australia and around Alice Springs, out of which the Nganampa Health Council operates. I think some very serious questions have to be asked as to why cases of children who have sexually transmitted diseases have not been reported. There is a $10,000 fine for people in these circumstances who know of this information and who fail to deal with it. My concern also is that the government had the opportunity and still does have the opportunity to immediately change its record-keeping in this regard—a major area of criticism by Commissioner Mullighan.

The one final plea I make is that the government understand that you cannot just run out there and say, 'Aren't we great! We've dealt with petrol sniffing. We've got it down from 70 cases the year before to 38 cases,' when it refuses to disclose that in 2006 there were 513 cases of marijuana abuse (that means nearly half the male population in most lands are using marijuana) and that 337 people are abusing alcohol. The fact that the number of people sniffing petrol (Opal fuel) has gone from 70 to 38 pales into insignificance. And here is the most scandalous thing—the putrid aspect of this government's refusal to even collect the data on marijuana and alcohol—

Time expired.

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