Page 798 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 21 March 2018
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there is a victim and a perpetrator, and because of that, justice by way of the criminal justice system is very rarely served.
While there are school-based programs which provide advice on identifying warning signs, there is a need to supplement these programs beyond what is currently taking place. Of course, in some cases, by the time these programs are delivered in schools, it is already too late. There is a need to bolster existing programs and to put in place new programs that are tailored for parents and caregivers outside schools to minimise the risk that children may fall victim to predatory behaviour.
Proactively giving parents information about this is, unfortunately, required. Whilst the information on many of the ParentLink brochures is good, the ParentLink stands can be somewhat overwhelming. There is so much information on those stands. And we need to be offering this as prevention, not as a form of healing. To that end, we need to make sure that this is proactive; we need to make sure that every single child is in an environment where the parents understand what the warning signs are and what the risks are. The opposition will take up the government’s invitation to work with them on this very important matter.
The reason this matter is on the agenda today is that about four or five weeks ago I met the person who is with us today in the chamber and I was told the pretty horrific story that that family went through. It is really a story beyond my imagination, and I think it is probably a story beyond most people’s imagination. However, through their trauma and their bravery, those people were able to convey their story, and then we were able to put it on the agenda today.
The trauma that the family went through, and continues to go through, is something that I hope fewer and fewer people will have to experience. It is incumbent upon all of us in this place to make sure that we are doing absolutely everything possible to get this scourge down to zero. That has to be our aspiration. We cannot get to a point where it is somehow inevitable. We cannot get to a point whereby we think it is just going to happen. We have to work towards eliminating this scourge. That is going to be hard, and we have to work in the reality that we are nowhere near there yet. That is why we have to make sure that there are programs and processes in place to help people who have had these traumatic experiences. But better still would be to prevent them from happening in the first place.
Something that I have learnt in recent weeks, when researching and preparing for this matter, is the extreme length that perpetrators will go to to put themselves in a position of power. These people are not rational; they are not logical. They are predators, and they will go to extreme lengths to put the odds in their favour. We have to make sure that we shift that balance and that the odds are in favour of parents and children.
It is because of the bravery and strength of this family that they were able to recover—they are still recovering—that they were able to report this matter to the police and that they were able to go through the gruelling interview stage. They were then able to go through the court stage. And against all the odds, they were able to get a conviction. There are very few convictions recorded in this space.
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