G'Day All,
How do we end child abuse when whole communities, establishment, legal sections(Courts Magistrates Solicitors etc) can be manipulated to operate outside the given Act & Law that is supposed to give the guidelines for a man to be able to rare his child in a way as to give the child an education nature manners etc.?
If but one case can be shown that the Act & Law is breached by DoCS or anybody else for that matter(Courts etc), Then that case should be allowed to be made public not continually just trying to cover the case up.
There are just to many secrets held by Directors-General "empowered with the near absolute power to be allowed to favour one side of a case to the other,further such power should at all times display non-bias and present an equal approach to the case before them".
Until this happens one secret will become two then four eight you get the drift, just to many secrets.
Thanks Have a good life from Dave.
PS Why don't some people read Attachment and Loss by John Bowlby

Linkages: The system is dealing with 'child abuse' of present day plus the aftermath of the decades affronted of yesterday.

Family and household stress has far wider dimensions than just "complex problems such as domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse". The "whole" issue within the household and it's place in community needs address.

To protect mothers and their children we need to be aware of the issue over a lifetime, because of the many ways the experience exposes the impact of the 'dysfunctional' practices.

In addressing the issue be it from a increase in reporting, education or courage from an individual, [and their families], support services or community itself..... more needs to be understood and done to heal society of the threats and impact of Child-abuse.

To make a positive mention, I also note the good work by the ALP, to start to open a wider process where the light is dull.

Please hear Ms Gillard on social inclusion

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2009/2689587.htm

Good Work

http://www.miacat.com/

How sadly true! As an ex Health Care worker (Qld Public Hospitals) I attest the problem is not confined to NSW. Political Correctness has much to answer for - especially where children of aboriginal heritage are concerned, but the rot set in back in the mid 70's.

During the Whitlam years Social Welfare was extended to single parents without means of support to keep children born out of wedlock. Simultaneously, Social Workers began advising pregnant girls of this, assuring "a child is better off with its own mother". Consequently many girls, who would have tearfully adopted out their new 'live dolly' then got on with life, then kept baby. Lovely - until the novelty wore off. This happened frequently in my experience especially with underage girls and little/no support from childs father and/or Grandparents.

Flow on effects were:
* Chronic poverty. Social welfare covered bare basics. Young mums without education or work experience struggled to find employment.
* Social disadvantage. The 'seconds' tag attached to single parents regardless of circumstance is a drawback in the mating game where players prefer unencumbered partners. Arrested development, lack of resources and societal disapproval also contribute.

These are not ideal circumstances under which to rear children.

Consequently a new underclass has evolved - one where children grow up in single parent or commonly multiple partner households. Siblings frequently have different fathers. There is often almost total reliance on welfare. Parenting skills are generally poor. Living standards including cleanliness and personal hygiene/grooming may be compromised. There is often minimal interest in education. Tobacco, alcohol and other substance use/abuse is common. Children suffer neglect through parental ignorance/disinterest or lack of resources. They often suffer abuse - especially at the hands of mummies latest boyfriend.

Childhood experience is our 'normality' which is often carried on to our offspring. Today one can observe the third generation resulting from this social engineering experiment.

It's a failure that continues to be perpetuated and one we're all paying for.

G'Day All,
Miacat ALP doing something is the biggest heap of garbage, for the last Twelve years the ALP has been approached to do something to stop the abuse and the criminal behaviour of the removal of my child.
What's the outcome you guessed it nothing more cover up.
It was alleged in court that on the 18/9/1997 I was in a town 550klms from Sydney yet I have a reciept to say that I was sitting in the guessed right again The ALP's Attorney-General's Law Library that former Attorney-General is now a Federal Member.
Results of my son no education torn from his parents alienated from his father traumatized severely his parents ripped apart that will never be together again that he wanted to return to.
ALP doing something don't make me laugh.What do you think that boy will grow like & be when he finally catches up with the truth?
Thanks have a good life. from Dave

“The need to “end the silence” prompted the Australian Human Rights Commission to mark National Child Protection Week by circulating an online survey to gauge people’s attitude and response to suspected child maltreatment.”

How does one end the silence when the agencies refuse to listen?

“The sad truth is that virtually nobody lobbies governments to defend the interests of the most abused and neglected children in the community. However, plenty of lobbying occurs in the interests of public sector social workers and the NGO sector.”

Of course they’d lobby, the NGO’s are the ones who can profit from children being kept behind many closed doors within the ranks of their own foster parents.

The Wood Recommendations did things like change the wording – don’t report unless you suspect “significant harm” instead of “harm”.

Instead of NSW fixing their phone lines to cope they have made it possible for cases such as neglect where the case builds up with multiple and not “significant” clues.

These recommendations also “recommend” that the NGO's take all the foster children. No matter how many times an NGO is in the headlines for abuse towards children in their care they appear untouchable.

Anyone ever head of DoCS owning any accountability for the treatment of the state wards?

I suspect the most abused and neglected children in the community are the ones already in foster care. Fix this, End This Silence, before placing more children in the system.

Glad to see someone in the 'front line', 'on the ground' commenting Piper. Actually I just like using those words. But I knew you'd come up with something good. It's bound to be better than anything the worlds most altruistic counsellor comes up with.

I must ask though, where is the line drawn, or where do people really want the line drawn, on taking the kids away?

I remember some pretty hairy moments as a kid that were pretty traumatic at the time, but on balance I'd have been much worse off I think if I'd have been shipped off to foster care all the time. (Unless it was Pipers house of madness and fun)

It seems to me there WILL be finite resources, and there will always be at least periods in kids lives when their parents are absolute spastics, and do we really want to investigate every rumour and knock down doors in the night?

Maybe we should make compulsory child care run by the state, where kids are interrogated every day. If we could just save one child from their loving but flawed parents!