A bit of a complicated article.

There was also a move away from institutions, from my understanding the idea of keeping children at home and providing support for parents and the hope that parents would eventually get it.

The other issues is that the goal posts get moved, what may have been acceptable behaviour a generation ago, is nolonger acceptable today.

A complex issue with no easy answers, but giving more powers to social workers etc is a rocky road to go down.

hi to all the forgotten australians out their , im still here and still fighting for justice for what we victims suffered in institutional care ,

my answer to the topic,

yes if it is known that their is abuse in a faimly home action has to be taken to protect the child from any form of abuse , , secondly if they are placed some where safe which one would hope , is hard to determine ,

just look at the forgotten australians , victims of abuse , a lot of us come from abusive faimlys taken away from their home to be placed in a safe invioment

but look what happend to a lot of us,

their were children raped and abused by the very staff who were to take care of them made ne slaves being misstreated by staff and others

so how sure can we be even when a child is taken away from a faimly and these types of things still continue in some cases of which are worse than what the abuse was from their own home life

not everybody who works in these departments are the goodie goodie some are purely sick people who take advantage of the young

i speak of this as being the truth

as i am a victim of institutional abuse as a child while under state care

i can only hope that the goverment we have now really takes a serious look at who they employ and to have them have a camera on them all the time that way we will know when a child is in care that nothing will happen to them while they are being looked after

maybe if the state of new south wales got of their ass and addmitted to the truth of the abuse that we victims suffered in their institutions through out this state , and its just not new south wales its other states as well

then the communities would know and be more aware of what really has taken place

from a real victim huffnpuff

As if you guys dont already realise it...we are far too concerned about the rights of those who abuse children. We hear the magistrates or judges express such deep concern for the rights oif the offenders.We produce an army of psychologists who produce from their bags of dirty tricks psychological profiles of offenders e.g poorly educated and didnt fully realise the enormity of the offence...a victim of abuse in childhood...is on drugs or alcohol and cant be accountable...its part of his culture and needs understanding ...ad nauseum.

The traumatised and abused is overlooked in all of this.The courts are guilty of contempt for the vulnerable.

I hate paedophlies getting caught and produced in a court of law for these very reasons.

socratease

Its a terrible state of affairs and realistically, its the design of how key stakeholders are funded. There is not much incentive for services to address child abuse than it is to keep it going and dragging it out.

socratease,

The editor's heading for this article is misleading and presumptuous and so I don't think we "are far too concerned about the rights of those who abuse children". We have seen some recent cases where sentences have been commensurate.

In a recent case in the County Court in Melbourne - outside which Care Leavers of Australia Network (CLAN) demonstrated for three days - the judge went out of his way to ensure that he had exactly the proper evidence to put the perpetrator away for a long time. He was worried that the perpetrator might appeal and get off on a technicality.

Child sexual abuse was wrong a hundred years ago, fifty years ago, ten years ago, and it's still wrong now. People who argue that times have changed are simply wrong.

What's changed is that advocates for children and the Forgotten Australians themselves are blowing the whistle and more and more being heard now whereas everything was once swept under the carpet because the perpetrators were all-powerful.

It is not. The article, though no doubt well intentioned, sugests the only information is collected by a survey of the population...as if a perpetrator would admit to abuse? and then goes on to say stats complied of SUSPECTED child abuse reported to statutory departments..etc

Article then further suggests incompetence by departments in only statutorily intervening in 58,563 out of the 309,517 reported.

It is suggested the majority of calls to the hotlines provided are malicious payback to the people thereby dobbed in as anonymity is allowed. It's easy...pick someone you don't like, provide the names and address, and hey bingo the family unit get grief. No calls should be accepted without identification. Hotlines should make it clear to callers their id will not be revealed to families investigated but if their claims are unsubstantiated, the caller will get grief as do time wasters to 000.

The hotlines in their present state are kangaroo courts as to the incidence of child abuse. Over 250,000 calls/reports did not require statutory intervention.

Suggest readers visit altnew.com.au for what does occur when bureaucrats make decisions, not families.