Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the introduction of the Crimes Amendment (Working With Children—Criminal History) Bill 2009. This bill implements the agreed reforms from the November 2008 COAG meeting which facilitate the interjurisdictional exchange of criminal history information for people working with children. This bill contains amendments to the Crimes Act 1914, which provides that a person whose conviction is spent, pardoned or quashed does not have to disclose the fact of the conviction. The act also prohibits others from disclosing the conviction without the person’s consent. The amendments to the Crimes Act create an exception for the convictions of persons who work or seek to work with children so that those convictions can be taken into account by Commonwealth, state and territory screening agencies in determining whether someone is suitable to work with children. These amendments will help protect children from sexual, physical and emotional abuse by permitting criminal history information to be disclosed and taken into account in assessing the suitability of someone to work with children.

Most decent-minded people would consider serious child abuse as a most abhorrent crime. They would find it incomprehensible, yet humanity’s record of protecting children is shameful. It would be considered one of mankind’s most serious failings. Whether it be child slavery or child soldiers—and I understand, according to United Nations figures, that right now there are some 300,000 child soldiers around the world—or sexual abuse of children, at times resulting in sexually motivated killings, or the forcible removal of children from their families, examples of child abuse span every generation, every country and every culture throughout the world. Even today, in a world that is better educated than ever before, child abuse throughout the world appears to be as prevalent as ever. What makes child abuse so repulsive is that those who commit the worst acts of child abuse are adults, who, having been children themselves, must surely understand the fear, the suffering and the hurt that they are inflicting. As with domestic violence, child abuse is one of those issues that many people refuse to talk about, accept or expose.

On a positive note, here in Australia more and more cases of child abuse are being exposed by authorities and the issue is being publicly discussed. That is a good thing. The National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect states that over 30,000 children are abused or neglected in Australia each year. One in three girls is sexually abused before the age of 18 years. One in seven boys is sexually abused before the age of 18 years. In 2007-08 there were 55,120 reports of child abuse and neglect substantiated by the child protection services. As staggering as these figures are, the reality is that so many more cases go unreported or unsubstantiated.

We will never really know the magnitude of the problem. What we do know is that the figures are trending upwards. In 2007-08 there were 31,166 young people in out-of-home care living away from home for their own protection, a number which has doubled in the last decade. We are also seeing exposed offences against children perpetrated by family members or other individuals in positions of trust and authority who, over long periods of time, grossly abused their position of trust and children in their care—people who destroyed the lives of others and were able to continue reoffending because others failed to intervene. The protection of children is the responsibility of the whole community, of all members of society. Sadly, most child offenders are repeat offenders. For that reason the exchange of all police information, including spent information, about a person seeking to work with children will add another level of protection for children. It will be welcomed throughout the community. Conversely, not to do so and to then have further offences committed by that person against children would be unforgivable. Put simply, the benefit of any doubt in these matters should always be given to the children.

I note that the minister, in introducing this bill, referred to the many child abuse cases that are never successfully prosecuted, in order to protect the child victim from the stress and trauma of giving evidence. The conviction therefore fails and the criminal record does not exist. So, in a sense, in order to protect the child, we are having to protect the offender, and the offender gets off scot-free. It is my view that that kind of information should be made available between jurisdictions to authorities seeking information about a person who is intended to be placed in a role associated with children.

I will quote some statistics from the organisation Adults Surviving Child Abuse which demonstrate the devastating consequences that abuse as a child can have in someone’s adult life. Seventy-six per cent of adults who report child abuse are likely to suffer from one or more psychiatric disorder in their lifetime. Forty-five per cent of young homeless people report physical or sexual abuse as a factor in leaving home. One study found that 65 per cent of prisoners were victims of physical and sexual abuse as a child. People who suffer child abuse as a child are more likely to suffer mental illness and experience homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse as an adult. The suicide rate of young Australian survivors of child abuse is 10 to 13 times higher than the national rate. Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, I notice that you have a motion on the issue of suicide coming up before this parliament next week. I will be taking the opportunity to speak about that, but I commend you in raising that matter, because it is very much tied to this issue of child abuse. Most disturbingly of all, 30 per cent of people maltreated as children will in turn go on to maltreat others when they are adults. This leads to a cycle of child abuse across generations and throughout history, as I described before.

It is timely that we are discussing this bill at a time that the nation has issued an apology to the forgotten Australians and the child migrants. That apology was the right thing to do. It was long overdue and it will acknowledge and give credibility to the sufferings of the forgotten Australians. It also highlights that, as a society, we must remain forever vigilant to the incidence of child abuse. Hardly a day passes without a new case being reported in the media. I want to quote from a couple of media articles. The first is an article by Mark Metherell and Adele Horin. In the article, those two journalists say:

The number of youngsters aged under 18 on care and protection orders has soared to 34,279, up 37 per cent in the three years to 2008, says the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s biennial report on welfare.

The number of cases notified to agencies in 2007-08 was 195,387, of which NSW was responsible for 103,355.

That was an article in today’s paper. This is what is being reported right now.

A report by Ainslie MacGibbon, on 29 October 2009, quotes Associate Professor Warwick Middleton, who is a specialist in trauma related syndromes and has been director of the trauma and dissociation unit at Belmont Hospital in Brisbane for 13 years. Professor Middleton says that shocking cases of long-term sexual abusers like Josef Fritzl are far more common than widely believed. Most of us have heard and read the accounts of Josef Fritzl but, according to Professor Middleton, those cases are far more common and prevalent than we understand. He says:

… the abuse usually starts at about three years of age, and I see women who are 50 still being abused by the same person. It is typical of this group to experience anywhere between 2000 and 10,000 abusive acts over a lifetime.

He estimates that about one in 1,000 people experience incestuous abuse into adulthood. Those figures are certainly alarming, if nothing else. It just highlights the magnitude of a problem that is generally swept under the carpet by society.

Mr Deputy Speaker Georganas, as a fellow South Australian, you would be familiar with the South Australian Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry into child abuse by Commissioner Ted Mullighan that commenced in 2004. His 600-page report, with 54 recommendations, was tabled in state parliament on 1 April 2008. I want to quote from the findings of that report and also from a press statement put out on the day that the report was tabled in state parliament. The statement by Commissioner Ted Mullighan reads:

Many people told me it was the first time they had ever disclosed the sexual abuse, and that they had been ashamed and embarrassed for their whole lives. To have the chance to tell their story, and be believed for the first time, was an enormous relief.

This statement highlights just how many people must live with the torment of having been abused but never talk about it. Perhaps the abuse affects their way of life thereafter—I am sure it does. Perhaps it is brought out in different ways but they never talk about it. Sadly, they do have to live with it. What is just as concerning is that those who cause the abuse might continue to abuse. I quoted the figures of the people who have been abused as children and who, as adults, are still being abused. It is remarkable to try and understand that.

I said earlier that the responsibility for children lies with all of us. This responsibility does not just lie with government or any particular department of government; it is a responsibility that all in society should bear. In that respect, I want to talk very briefly about a program that is currently underway in my electorate of Makin—the Salisbury Communities for Children program. This is an example of how a community can come together to try and prevent child abuse. It is an example of people working together to improve the lives of children in their community. The Salisbury Communities for Children program is also often referred to as FamilyZone. These FamilyZone hubs facilitate the prevention of child abuse and neglect by bringing families together with a range of support services for families with children up to five years of age.

Salisbury Communities for Children was established around the idea that effective early childhood intervention is about supporting not only the children themselves but also their parents, their neighbourhoods and the broader community. What began as a playgroup that met three days per week at the Salvation Army Ingle Farm in 2005 became two support centres for young families in the northern suburbs. The FamilyZone support centres located at Ingle Farm and Para Hills provide a range of initiatives for children and families. These include parent education, community play areas, young mum support groups and specific programs for new arrivals, such as English classes, and dedicated support groups for families of Afghani and African backgrounds. FamilyZone hubs work in partnership with the relevant federal, state and local government agencies, including health, community and education services, and also non-government organisations. As well as educating parents, Salisbury Communities for Children has partnered with the University of South Australia and TAFE South Australia to provide early childhood leadership training courses for early childhood professionals.

The excellent work being carried out by Karl Brettig and his team at the Salisbury Communities for Children provides the nurturing environment that all young children need and deserve. I have attended their centres, I have seen the work they do, I have spoken to the parents and I have spoken to Mr Brettig about the programs. They also provide information and support that allows adults to be better parents for their children. Salisbury Communities for Children centre is very highly regarded by parents and families throughout the community, and this is evidenced by the increase in community participation in, and the always strong demand for, the programs since the centre was established in 2005.

I raise that as an example of how communities can collectively take a responsibility to ensure that children, wherever they might be, are given the protection they quite rightly deserve, and sometimes need. Through communities working together, issues and risks can be exposed by ways other than waiting for the child to come forward and talk about it. The right intervention can then take place. I commend Karl and his team for their work. I note that Karl has been asked to go and speak about child safety measures at a conference in Western Australia this week because of the success of that program. I certainly commend it to other communities. This is a bill that will be welcomed by the community. I certainly welcome it. I commend the bill to the House.

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