Nova Peris (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on an extremely important issue. It is perhaps one of the most important issues of all: the protection of our children from abuse and neglect. People may have noticed items recently in the media, in the last couple of days, in relation to an increase of 30 per cent of child abuse reports in the Northern Territory. That is a 30 per cent increase in just the last 12 months. This data was provided to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by officials from the Northern Territory's Department of Children and Families. I will speak more broadly on these figures a bit later but what has been the Northern Territory government's response to this increase in child abuse? They have cut the funding. By cutting this funding, what they have done is cut the number of investigations that are being finalised. Child abuse and neglect is up by 30 per cent and child protection funding is down.

But why is the Northern Territory government's child protection funding down? I will read an extract from their own budget. That is, budget paper No. 3 on page 146:

The reductions in the Children and Families output group in 2014-15 is largely due to a decrease in Commonwealth-funded programs and efficiency measures.

That is the NT government clearly stating in their own budget papers that the Abbott government's funding cuts mean a cut in child protection funding. So, yet again, here we are: the Prime Minister and the Minister for Indigenous Affairs claim that their cuts will not affect front-line services, but all we see is the hard-core reality of this. That is, the cuts to services. Ones like child protection services are and have been cut.

It does not get much more front-line than child protection. If anyone deserves protecting, it is our children. Of course, child protection is a front-line service. Anything contrary to that by those opposite is dead wrong. It is unbelievable that after everything that we have been through in the federal parliament with the Little children are sacred report, the Intervention and Stronger Futures that we now have a government with a Prime Minister who is cutting funding to child protection in the Northern Territory. It is mind-boggling that anyone could do this, but they have. This is not just me getting up here and saying it. It is in the official budget papers provided by the Northern Territory government, which is a Country Liberal government.

The Department of Children and Families' budget in the Northern Territory was cut by $8 million, which is approximately equivalent to 50 child protection officers. What happens when you cut child protection workers? Well, we have seen the result: the increase of child abuse cases goes up. Two years ago, there were 8,000 reports of child abuse in the Northern Territory and 5,400 of them had investigations completed. This year, the Northern Territory budget forecasts that there will be 13,000 reports of child abuse; but only 4,400 of them will have investigations completed. So two years ago two-thirds of child abuse reports had investigations completed, but this year only a one-third will be completed. That is the impact of these budget cuts. This year 8,600 reports of child abuse in the Northern Territory will not have investigations completed. What happens when someone abuses a child and there is not even an investigation? Well, the perpetrator gets away with it.

Our governments are abandoning those in our society who simply cannot defend themselves. When our children are being abandoned like this, then the government is not upholding their responsibilities to protect our children. In 2007, Patricia Anderson said at the launch of the Little children are sacred report, which she co-authored, that the rivers of grog are:

…destroying our communities and our families.

With the support of the Abbott government, the Northern Territory government has reopened the rivers of grog and child abuse has increased by 30 per cent. It is just disgraceful. Our little children are certainly not considered sacred by the Abbott government. I call on the Abbott government to immediately restore the funding that they have cut.

Finally, I want to thank all the child protection workers in the Northern Territory. They have incredibly high case loads and work in an incredibly difficult and stressful environment. They deserve support, not cuts. I want to thank the department officers who provided evidence to the royal commission. I think it is disgraceful that the Country Liberal government in the Northern Territory gagged public servants from giving evidence to inquiries into alcohol abuse. But this is a royal commission, so this time the CLP could not suppress the truth. I hope that these brave little people's efforts will not be ignored.