Child poverty, abuse rife in NT

A new report has put the spotlight on child poverty in the Northern Territory of Australia. Photo / Getty Images

DARWIN - Neglect. It's a little word with a big meaning. If a person neglects to feed their baby, it is likely the child will die.

A child who is not provided adequate health care could suffer immensely, and possibly die. Both scenarios are, sadly, occur even in first world countries such as Australia.

But what about the failure to provide sanitation, education or psychological support to our children?

Many children across the country have been failed by government child protection departments with deep-seated systemic flaws.

Child welfare in the Northern Territory has been under the national microscope for years.

A child protection worker, who says her "work is like trying to shift an elephant with a pin", was one of 150 stakeholders who made submissions recently to an inquiry into the NT's child protection system.

Another submission said: "Staff are now so caught up in justifying our actions on paper that we spend more time sitting at a computer than we do with our clients".

The NT Police even had their say: "Within the health portfolio, child protection is one of a number of competing priorities ... There are levels of bureaucracy that can impede efficiency".

Bureaucratic red tape extends far beyond the departmental level.

The Little Children are Sacred report, commissioned by the NT government in August 2006 following damning claims of horrific child sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities, made 97 recommendations.

In response to the report, then NT chief minister Clare Martin released a generational plan of action that took in 42 of the recommendations.

The Howard government intervened, launching the Northern Territory Emergency Response into remote Aboriginal communities.

The intervention has been continued by the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments.

One of the recommendations of the Little Children Are Sacred report included the appointment of a commissioner for children and young people.

In November last year, NT Children's Commissioner Howard Bath released his inaugural annual report, which showed that the NT Labor government had fully adopted just 12 of the 42 recommendations to date.

Some had also been partly acted upon.

In the weeks leading up to the release of the commissioner's report, a string of cases involving the abuse of NT children emerged.

Child protection workers spoke out publicly about being confronted with a huge backlog of cases.

NT government departments were accused of failing to investigate warnings the children involved in the cases were at risk.

The NT ombudsman was called on to investigate, as was Dr Bath.

The Country Liberal opposition, which in its final year in government in 2001 committed just $7 million to child protection, was highly critical of both approaches.

The minority Labor government agreed to hold an independent inquiry into the child protection system only when the UFO-spotting, chook-farming independent member keeping them in power said he would side with the Country Liberals to force their hand.

The announcement of the inquiry coincided with the release of the commissioner's report.

Countless dollars and hours later, another report, released on Monday, has made virtually the same findings as every report before it.

The board said it was the first inquiry into the NT child protection system, and that in making 147 recommendations it had tried not to duplicate those made in previous reports.

What is clear from the three-person inquiry's report - entitled Growing Them Strong, Together - is that the problems haven't changed.

Case workers still have huge workloads, resulting in high burnout rates.

Governments continue to find it difficult to recruit and retain staff.

What has changed is the level of public awareness and the amount of funding being spent by the NT government on child protection services.

The 2010/11 budget includes A$135 (NZ$177) million for NT Families and Children (NTFC).

The NT spent A$258 per capita on child protection services in 2008/09, compared with a national average of A$156.

While the funding has increased, so too has the case load of child protection workers.

There have been claims that incidences of child abuse have risen since Labor came to power, but such statements are misleading.

Put simply, a greater number of people are no longer willing to turn a blind eye.

The current NT government introduced mandatory reporting of domestic violence and child sexual abuse, resulting in an increase in information being shared with authorities.

However, communication difficulties exist at every stage of the system.

Internal information sharing can be difficult in places such as the NT where, in just three years, there have been three child protection ministers, two NT Department of Health and Families chief executive officers, and two NTFC bosses.

Neglected children often slip through the cracks when states and territories fail to share information.

In recent years, there have been calls by organisations across the country to develop a national child protection system with one policy document and one set of standards.

The federal Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, this year announced that a national standards framework would be developed to protect children in foster care.

But more action is needed.

Hopefully, the report generated by this latest NT inquiry, which twice delayed releasing its findings, will be the report that supersedes all others.

The children who are being neglected won't need yet another report in another two years that says we didn't act when we had the chance.

- AAP