o sung wu,
I fully agree with your comments. Sadly, authorities always fail the victim. This is because authorities are a compilation of self-interest bureaucrats who resist integrity at all cost. In this case at the cost of children. We witness this abhorrent culture on a daily basis in just about every authority there is.
Then there is the other side. Had many children not been removed (not stolen, it was the family environment that was stolen by many unfit parents) they would have suffered the same fate as many of those who didn't get removed, they perished under dreadful circumstances. Just give it another 20 years & the catch cry will be; "why didn't the government take us away from our unfit parents". The disgusting sexual abuse of children has sadly been going on since day 1 and, sadly will continue. All we can do is to make sexual child abuse a far more severe crime with severe sentencing. Unfortunately, many paedophiles enter a profession in authority which almost automatically assures them protection.

Bernie I commend you on your continual endeaver to bring to light the cruel, sadistic and EVIL child abuse that took place at the hands of Child welfare and goverments, past and present.

The crap that has been posted about "Wilmas Story" shows there is anger, mis-understanding, and little compassion among some of the readers towards a young child being mentally, physically and sexually abused at the hands of adults appointed to her care and safety. I believe the point of Wilmas story has been lost on these readers. Instead of projecting your anger, or own trauma onto wilma and her story why not direct it where it really belongs, DOCS and the government.

Child Welfare still has power, but dispite there failings in the past, and the brave victims now telling there stories, children are still are getting abused in this system. If we all worked together we could have the power also. The power to stop the abuse of children within the system.

If you read Bernies series of articles on institutional abuse, namely
"Getting SCREWED at the School of crime", "Mick's Story", "Marleen's Story", "Wilma's Story" and "From the cradle to the grave" by John Murray, you will agree that it was a outrageous criminal attack on our children. It is Australias disgrace that these crimes were committed on children.

I personally have lived through institional care as a child including being incarcerated at Hay Gaol twic, and have lived silently with my horrors all my life, untill the Senate Inquiry into the "Forgotten Australians" enabled me to speak my truth for the first time, up untill then i had suppressed my trauma by what is called disassociation. A survival mechanism.

David wanted to know why Wilma wasnt willing to make the best of the situation........ Unless you have been in this situation you will never comprehend the pain and suffering endured at the hands of others.

Rattles

O Sung Wu stated:

And to those pious and virtuous 'larva' who knowingly shield these 'rock spider' monsters, apply exactly the same heavy penalty as if they themselves, committed the offence. - end quote.

Absolutely correct O Sung Wu!

I was horrified when, in response the emergence of elder abuse in nursing homes in recent years, the aged care industry- govt regulators and NGO sector went rushing down the mandatory reporting path.

Instead of making an example of the perpetrator and the person who covered up the sexual assault of a senile late eighties female inmate in an aged care home, the government and the press spent weeks running that old whore fraudsters trick- the ‘madatory reporting’scam.

They were happy to do this because they know that mandatory reporting doesn’t work, flooding the system with spurious reports, often malicious reports, and in the end crashing the system so- you guessed it, the actual abusers can keep getting away with giving it to a vulnerable person (elderly- child or otherwise).

Somehow, the person who witnessed the rapes got away with their cover-up of assault by saying they didn’t know they had to report it!

And the system, which regularly prosecutes the victims of these people stating that “ignorance of the law is no defense”, didn’t proceed with laying accessory charges, or conceal crime charges, or a raft of other legal remedies available- they set up committees, generated reports, and analysis, and rafts of policy and all sorts of crap, just so they could allow similar abusers to keep getting away with f@cking the vulnerable.

And guess what, the very same agencies that got away with this charade in relation to the sexual assault of children in their care, did the same with the elderly! Anglicare, salvos, centrecare and all of those other agencies just keep getting away with this stuff!

I can only ask whether- because these organisation pay so little to their staff, unfettered sexual/ disciplinary access to vulnerable populations for the purpose of self gratification is a nontaxable non financial perk of the job!

Certainly seems that way.

Hirez. Everything is blamed on lack of funding. This is despite the fact that is our Governments who fund it!

Some people do not understand that the process and administration adopted by the Government means that they can justify anything and cover up child neglect and abuse and just blame funding.

From what I have been told the Government cannot be held accountable for the neglect of children. Only the parent can be seen to be neglectful.....

It isn't just our Government who is failing the children, it is the people. As adults we should protect the children. To do otherwise would be failing in our duty of care.

Too many adults protect abusers.

Rattles, one of the issues with this I think is a lack of knowledge that some of these places even existed, let alone what happened inside them. Eg I grew up in Hay and these articles are the first I've heard of such an institution there (although granted I wasnt around in the 60's).

After reading Kathryn's story about abuse at the hands of her father, I think she has very eloquently summed up the thoughts of other posters on this thread about victimhood and surivival. I dont think there are many people out there who would deny the horror and impact this treatment would have on a child. Kevin's opinion (I think) was more along the line of Kathryn's arguments in that whilst it was horrific, neither of them were going to let that experience forever take centre stage in their lives. Maybe the question should be how have these people got to the point where they are able to mentally file the experience and not let it impede their lives, and how can we project that capability onto others to help them do the same.

Lets please not forget something Countrygirl. The abuse that Wilma suffered was at the hands of the State whilst she was a ward of the State. What happened to those other victims that you refer to was abuse and neglect by their parent/s.

There is a huge difference.