Page 4749 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 10 November 2009
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there will be a couple of substantiated child abuses during the time in which I make this speech. That is just appalling. When we speak about child abuse, we are not talking about a small problem that affects only particular or vulnerable children; we are talking about a problem that can affect any child.
Sadly, as a community we are failing to understand that child abuse and neglect is an issue about families. When we look at who maltreats children, we know that 74 per cent of them are natural parents; 10 per cent are step-parents or de facto parents; seven per cent are another relative or sibling; five per cent are a friend or a neighbour; and four per cent are others, including, of course, strangers.
The key message this year during Child Protection Week was:
Walls protect child abuse, not children. Break down the walls and help bring child abuse out into the open.
Last year, over 30,000 Australian children were proven to have been abused or neglected. It would seem that many—far too many—walls exist within our community that allow this to continue to happen.
Child abuse is rarely a one-off event, and it is always harmful. Research demonstrates that child abuse is known to increase the risks of substance addiction, crime, homelessness, poor physical health, educational failure, poor employment prospects, depression and suicide.
These issues are costly not only for the individual but for the community and for governments and the whole family. We know that past victims of child abuse are grossly over-represented in prison populations as perpetrators of crime and of violence. We know that cycles of violence and abuse can be passed through generations of families and we need to acknowledge that enough is enough.
Where is the light and hope in this issue? It is obviously with the children and the young people who demonstrate extreme levels of resilience to tell people the truth. The light and hope continue with the adults who believe the child or young person and help them tackle this problem. The light and hope are with the researchers, the policy makers, the law makers, the advocates, the workers, the parents, the teachers and the adults who choose to work towards making this problem disappear through changing cultures, values and community norms.
I would like to recognise the work of the care and protection workers who undertake a difficult and confronting job every day to help improve the lives of children in our community. I would like to recognise the community organisations who work in this area, the foster carers and kinship carers who we were just talking about in question time, and the other professionals and individuals who work to stop child abuse in the ACT and everywhere.
There are several simple and key messages we need to make sure are promoted, understood and embraced by all citizens and communities across Australia. The message “there is nothing so bad that we and you cannot talk about it” is a critical
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