Second. Political leaders need to initiate and conduct serious investigations into the internal operations of government itself, starting with a cold and objective analysis of what is being taught social workers in their training programs in accredited educational institutions. In all-too-many educational programs, where there are social work collegiate majors and even graduate degrees, the intellectual rigor of what these social work majors are being taught is pathetic at best, and laughable at worst. Having enrolled in one such course, I immediately dropped it when I heard the professor tell a filled lecture hall that what was important was not what you “know,” but what you “feel” about a family.

Yet, these same social workers are given credibility in courtrooms to testify and to submit “analytical reports” to courts based not on facts, but merely on what they “feel.”

If a parent is having a bad day when a social worker visits, and the social worker, most of whom are rather young and worldly-inexperienced and immature, “feels” that the parent has not recognized and groveled in honor to the superiority of the social worker, then the social worker can quite easily destroy any family unit with near impunity.

Third. Judicial systems need to deal with the real world of child abuse with the application and integration of technology into their judicial proceedings. In the US, the creation of “family law courts” became a faddish trend, intended to provide a more informal setting than regular courtrooms. One of the “innovative” ideas was to not have a court reporter to create a transcript of the proceedings so as to lower the expenses to the family … or perhaps to more expeditiously shift the parental “responsibility” from the parents to the state government. Currently, the Republic of Ireland is examining the implementation of three regional family law courts. As a result, it created a judicial dictatorial regime where laws were abused at best, and simply ignored and even violated at worst, because of no accountability and responsibility because of no transcript of record.

Child abuse IS a blight.

It also has to be remembered that most infanticide is committed by... MOTHERS.

What gets me with the title of this article is the idea that people are responsible for other peoples children.

We are not.

I brought my daughters up in one of dual homes because I separated from their mother.

I did not seek other people to take responsibility for my children and I seek to take no responsibility for other folks kids.

To the usual UN sponsored drivel

"the true measure of a nation's standing is how well it attends to its children - their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialisation, and their sense of being loved, valued and included in the families and societies into which they are born".

I can only speak for my dysfunctional family as it contributes to the “Nations Standing” (oh don’t you love phrases like that, pure politico-crappola)

Both my daughters are in their 20s.
Neither has ever been neglected
Neither has ever been abused – although both have been smacked when naughty, by me and their mother.
Both have a loving and continuous relationship with me and their mother.
Both have developed into responsible, focused, happy and productive individuals who contribute to the “Nations Standing” by having jobs, paying their taxes and obeying the laws. They do much more than that but in “Nations Standing” terms, that is all that is needed.

So I get tired of people telling me I am blighted because someone else has abused their kids.

We are all individual, we are solely responsible for our children. We are not responsible nor blighted by the shortcomings of others.

Supposedly government is there to help support the family unit.

Maybe they should express that support by reducing the burden they place on families through excessive taxes, rates and government charges including this carbon tax disaster all of which reduce the ability of responsible parents to look after their children

Col Rouge

We can't all be as perfect as you. You looked after your children - the rest of the world's children can just bugger off, eh?

So you'd pick up your own daughters if they got into strife, but turn away from a neighbor in need?

Happily, not all the world is as self-centred and smug as you, old feller.

I don't entirely agree with the writer that we need more health professionals interceding.

A mate of mine was evicted for not mowing the grass. His home was neat and clean but he couldn't get out to mow due to a depressive illness. No neighbour came by to ask how he was. No Council worker dropped in to see what the matter was, the owner drove passed and kept on driving to the agent who evicted him. It reminded me of the recent case in Adelaide where the house was a wreck and no-one went round to help.

A caring and compasionate community requires everyone developing a compassionate response to need. An untidy home is a signal something is wrong, that someone needs a hand to get the place and their lives in order. If neighbours, through Council if nesessary, had neighbourhood support for these cases the stress of loneliness, alienation, and illness could be addressed in a better way than it currently is, and all, including children would benefit. We can't leave it all to DOCS.

Blaming pedophiles and parents is a sign of a lack of compassion and understanding of the causes of child neglect and abuse. We all need to support each other through life. To do this we need better neighbourhood reporting systems and compassionate responses. Blaming never solves problems. If my mate had a neighbour drop in to mow the grass and have a chat he would have kept his home and recovered earlier.

Pedophiles by the way are usually abused children

Spikey “So you'd pick up your own daughters if they got into strife, but turn away from a neighbor in need?

Happily, not all the world is as self-centred and smug as you, old feller”

Absolutely on the first

and to the neighbour, I would yet after my daughters.

Of course, I know my neighbours. As I know my friends

but to the likes of you? All I know is you are judgmental and quick to criticize those you have no direct knowledge of.

Both features being deficient in the qualities which would ever endear me to ever think of doing anything for you or ever asking for anything from you or considering your view worthy of even momentary recall.

Barfenzie “A caring and compassionate community”

Don’t seek compassion from government or government employees at any level. They are paid to do a job. Your existence and possible expectations merely burdens them with responsibilities they would sooner not have.

In my times of need I have found my friends the source of support and the medical profession a source of professional service but I don’t think even doctors consider their patients their friends or their ‘work’ necessarily their ‘purpose’.


To parents, even poor ones, they are the best ones to bring up their own children, Lenins experiments proved it.

“Pedophiles by the way are usually abused children”
yes but we are all individually responsible for our own actions and the pedophile ignores his or her own childhood pain when inflicting similar on their victims.

I would call it lust and self entitlement displacing any sense of empathy, respect or compassion .