The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council welcomes Prime Minister
John Howard's sudden realisation that child sexual abuse is a national
emergency after 11 years in power, and a decade of so-called practical
reconciliation.
However, Council has profound concerns about his draconian policy
responses and wonders why he has for so long ignored a stream of
reports from within his own government about the crisis of violence
and physical abuse in Aboriginal communities throughout its 11 years
in office.
Perhaps it is because he has visited so few Aboriginal communities in
his term as Prime Minister.
Let us not forget the ?national summit? on violence in Indigenous
communities he held in July 2003 and his pledge to take action
because, in his words, communities were being destroyed. The summit
came and went; the violence and abuse continued.
We are now told by the Prime Minister it is a national emergency.
Aboriginal people have been telling this to Mr Howard and State and
Territory Governments for decades. They have pledged to work with all
Governments on this issue as a priority.
They have been ignored.
The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council welcomes any action by any
government to remove the scourge of family violence and child abuse in
our communities.
However, every official report which has been released in the past
three decades identifying this as a crisis and calling for urgent
action has recommended that the sustainable solutions required to
successfully tackle these problems will only come with the proper
resourcing of community controlled violence programs.
These cannot be prescribed from Canberra.
This is a central message of the Little Children Are Sacred report, as
it has been in all previous reports.
There appears to have been no consultation on Mr Howard's
extraordinary intervention with the affected communities in the
Northern Territory.
Programs must be developed to strengthen families and communities to
empower them to confront and deal with these problems while looking at
long term strategies and the commitment of resources to address the
underlying causes of child abuse, including the gross overcrowding and
lack of houses, the horrific lack of education and educational
facilities and chronic unemployment.
That cannot be done in isolation from the very people who daily suffer
the trauma of these problems.
The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council has no specific statutory
obligation in relation to family violence but we do have an active
involvement, on behalf of the land rights network in NSW, to advise
our people on relevant policy responses from the Commonwealth and
State Governments to these matters.
We have sought to actively engage Local Aboriginal Land Councils and
their communities, in responding to the NSW Government?s Breaking the
Silence report into child abuse in this state.
We will be discussing a range of concerns we have with the State
Government?s response with state authorities in the near future. We
will also be discussing the proposed response from the NSW Government
to the proposed intervention in the NT by the Howard Government.
We will ensure they understand the need to work with our communities
to produce sustainable solutions, which stamp out the scourge of
violence and abuse in our communities.
Bev Manton
Chairperson
NSWALC
Contact: Paul Molloy 0419 690 926
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22 June 2007
NSW Reconciliation Council calls on State Government to oppose
opportunistic Federal approach to addressing child abuse
The Federal Government's overdue response to child abuse is a shameful
example of political opportunism and will not achieve long term
positive outcomes for Indigenous communities, according to the NSW
Reconciliation Council.
`The welfare of Aboriginal children should never be used for political
purposes. Mr Howard's behaviour is shameful. I will not stand silent
while he uses the welfare of Aboriginal children for his own political
gain,' Mr Greg Davison, Chairperson of the NSW Reconciliation Council
said. `Genuine action is necessary; we have seen government inaction
on this issue for decades.'
The Council is calling on the NSW Government to lead the way on this
issue by funding the implementation of the Breaking the Silence Report
recommendations of its own Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce.
`In contrast to the Federal Government's imposed, discriminatory,
knee-jerk approach, these recommendations were developed in
partnership with Aboriginal communities in NSW through the Aboriginal
Child Sexual Assault Taskforce,' explained Renee Williamson, Deputy
Chairperson of the NSW Reconciliation Council.
The Council believes the Federal Government's response fails to
address the underlying systemic issues, which have caused many of the
problems facing Indigenous communities today.' Ms Williamson stated
`history has shown us that complex problems such as abuse are not
solved through punitive and paternalistic measures…This is
protectionism all over again.
`Trust is a precious commodity in Aboriginal communities. Coercion and
fear will only exacerbate problems in the Northern Territory as they
have done for so long in NSW,' said NSW Reconciliation Council Board
member Sally Fitzpatrick.
Child abuse is an issue requiring urgent action not only in Aboriginal
communities, and not only in the Northern Territory. For Aboriginal
communities in NSW, the Council believes that the NSW Government has
the opportunity to take a different approach to the Federal
Government. By funding the implementation of the NSW Interagency Plan
based on the Breaking the Silence Report, the NSW Government will work
together with Aboriginal communities to effectively address the issue
in partnership.
`Real solutions can only be found at the local level and only when the
system provides trust and support' explained David Crew, NSW
Reconciliation Board member.
Media Enquiries
For all media enquiries please contact Greg Davison (Chair) on 0418
969 022 or Renee Williamson (Deputy Chair) on 0409 410 285.
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Subject: Memo from NACCHO: child health checks in the NT under the
Howard Plan for child sexual abuse
Importance: High
Dear colleagues,
The NACCHO Executive has asked that this message be sent. Please
forward to your contacts.
You will be aware that the Howard Government has announced a plan
where "scores of doctors will be drafted to examine all 23,000-plus
indigenous children in the Territory aged under 16 for evidence of
sexual abuse" as reported by the Australian on June 22.
You will also be aware that under COAG, a program for the
implementation of an accelerated child health check has been underway
since first discussed in late November 2006 following an
Intergovernmental Summit on Child Abuse in Indigenous Communities. The
accelerated child health check program is a trial involving teams of
GPs and nurses to be recruited to provide 2000 Aboriginal children
with child health checks in 10 remote Aboriginal communities with
established primary health care services. The roll-out of this trial
has so far found that most services wish to adopt a `backfill model'
of recruitment where their local GPs (who have the skills and
knowledge of the community) undertake the child checks rather than the
other way around.
This is no surprise. The introduction of a broader program of child
health checks for all Aboriginal children in the NT that concentrates
on sexual health checks is disturbing. Some of the concerns have
already been reported from the medical profession, such as the AMA in
the NT, citing the workforce issues and the cultural sensitivities in
implementing such a scheme.
Moreover, returning to the original NT Inquiry ("Little Children Are
Sacred") to which this proposal is a response, the Inquiry recommends
the following health responses:
Home visiting programs; increased health centre focus on maternity,
prenatal and early childhood support; increased health services
capacity to deliver the focus by increasing support for PHCAP;
increased primary health care training; using primary health care
services as "hubs" for integrated health and welfare responses in
remote communities; and in consultation with Aboriginal communities
and organizations, that programs to address the underlying effects of
`intergenerational' trauma be developed to enhance emotional and
social well-being.
The Inquiry did not recommend widespread sexual health checks
(screening) of all Aboriginal children as proposed by the Howard
Government.
NACCHO recommends that any governmental response that involves the
health sector must proceed only after there has been consultation and
support gained from Aboriginal communities and organizations. We
invite the Government and all health bodies to engage with NACCHO
prior to endorsing or supporting the Australian Governments proposals
for screening all Aboriginal children under 16 years in the NT.
Please make contact with Ms Dea Thiele, CEO NACCHO on 0417046692, in
order to ensure there is an evidence-based, and responsibly sensitive
health sector response to proposals from the Australian government.
Kind regards
(on behalf of Ms Dea Thiele)
Dr Sophie Couzos
FRACGP FACRRM FAFPHM
Public Health Officer
National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
20 Cleveland Terrace, Townsville, Qld 4810
sore
