Page 4209 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 24 October 2018
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I think that the true extent and pervasive nature of domestic and family violence is underestimated. The impacts of it are far-reaching. Mrs Kikkert’s speech was a moving example of how it has affected one person and one family and how it has gone out from that. But I know that in Australia there are thousands, probably millions, of stories that are not the same but about the same issue. I am aware of other people in my circle of friends and acquaintances who have been impacted by family and domestic violence as children, and it has marked their life forever. They are undoubtedly still suffering from things that happened to them as children. I have to totally agree with Mrs Kikkert that it is vital to focus on the impacts for children and young people who either witnessed or were subject to family violence occurring in the home in which they lived and possibly left.
This week’s apology to the victims of institutional child sexual abuse highlights the extent to which child sexual abuse has prevailed in this nation, but of course it did not include or focus on children who were sexually abused in the home. This is another quite pervasive form of domestic and family violence. It is an indicator that we still have a long way to go in this space. We all know that statistically the most common perpetrators of child abuse, including child sexual abuse, are people related to or known to the child. I fear very much that child sexual abuse in institutions is but the tip of the iceberg.
We as a community must be prepared to examine the ills that plague our society, to look at the areas which we have traditionally not acknowledged or talked about because they are too uncomfortable. That includes the perpetration of and exposure to domestic and family violence and its impacts on children and young people. It requires a focus that it does not have at this stage.
The DVPC report clearly outlines that children and young people exposed to domestic and family violence are often invisible in ACT service systems, and the supports and services that provide a crucial response to adults do not adequately recognise children and young people as clients in their own right.
This is an issue which has been ongoing in the homelessness sector for many years. Crisis support services that are set up to assist women and their children fleeing violence are not specifically funded to work with the children but, of course, as in Mrs Kikkert’s situation, the women come with multiple children in tow. That is a major reason why many women actually decide to change the situation they are living in.
We know that investment and focus in this area will have the greatest opportunity for influencing and reducing intergenerational cycles of abuse and the greatest opportunity to change the trajectory for children who are growing up in households where abuse occurs. An important element of this is to ensure that the voices of children and young people are heard.
A focus on children and young people will assist with reducing the potential for them to go on to become either perpetrators of such violence or victims of it. We know that growing up in family violence households normalises the behaviour. Children and
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