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Operation CSI on pedophilia

By Stephen Hagan - posted Monday, 5 June 2006


Two years ago Treasurer Peter Costello urged Australians to go home and produce “one for Mum, one for Dad and one for the country”. The nation was greeted the following morning with newspaper headlines of “Go forth and multiply”.

I’m afraid I wasn’t exactly over enthused with the thought of entertaining, with my wife, the notion back then of producing a playmate for our eight-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old son - besides Rhonda just wouldn’t have been interested in changing our original family dimension for the sake of an exuberant treasurer. I would love to have had five children to replicate the composition of my immediate family or ten like Rhonda’s clan - but times have changed.

The 2006 budget did provide sweeteners for families with a new child-friendly regime bringing a cash injection to around half a million more families that will cost the country about $993 million over four years. In real terms, after July 1, children will be valued (Costello speak) at around $4,200 a piece; those with three will also now be deemed to have a large family and win a slice of the “Large Family Supplement” providing about 350,000 families with an extra $248 a year.

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Now that all sounds very sanitised but probably has the effect of providing a temporary warm fuzzy feeling for your average mum and dad. Perhaps Costello and Howard slept soundly on budget night believing their own publicity that Mr and Mrs Smith, from middle suburbia and rural townships, would endorse their spin and be grateful for their consideration and generosity - even though the family tax offering is nothing more than the Smith’s taxes returning like a boomerang in a reduced form.

But where in the budget is there anything of substance to address the needs of the most destitute members of our community: Aboriginal women and children? Some Indigenous mothers, grandmothers, aunties and sisters watch on helplessly while their smallest and most vulnerable members are sexually abused by pedophiles living unchallenged in their communities.

Where in the $36.7 billion budget is there anything remotely resembling an allocation of funds for programs that address child abuse? More specifically - where is there money allocated to enable state and federal police to work co-operatively to rid our communities of child predators?

I know there was $19.6 billion extra for the defence forces; $2.2 billion to buy four new C-17 heavy lift aircraft; $250 million for defence force recruitment and retention; $8.1 million for national security including a big boost for ASIO; and $289 million to combat illegal fishing.

Back in March, ABC News reported, “there has been a significant rise in the number of allegations of child abuse in Western Australia”.

The Department for Community Development said the number of reported incidents in the state increased by 33 per cent in 2005, compared to the previous year. The strongest rise identified was in the Murchison and the Goldfields, with allegations of abuse almost doubling.

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Department spokeswoman Leah Bonson says the increase of alleged offences is a direct result of the recommendations from the Gordon Inquiry (2002) into child abuse in Aboriginal communities.

"Because we've put out a lot of resources, we've had a lot more people coming forth and it's not just Aboriginal families, but it's the whole community and that's been quite positive," she said.

The Pilbara reported the lowest increase, at 16 per cent, with the south-west 68 per cent, the Wheatbelt 31 per cent, Great Southern 56 per cent and Kimberley 22 per cent.’

An ABC TV Lateline program aired on May 15 exposed a leaked Northern Territory police briefing paper that revealed disturbing cases of sexual abuse and violence against women and children in remote Aboriginal communities.

The crown prosecutor for central Australia, Dr Nannette Rogers, has collected the details over a 15-year period. Dr Rogers details cases of utter depravity and the contents spell out a level of human degradation and suffering that she believes can no longer be tolerated.

They include the rape of a seven-month-old baby as well as the sexual assault and drowning of a girl by an 18-year-old man.

Her paper exposes the extent of the problem and how Indigenous male culture and the web of kinship have helped create a conspiracy of silence. We should not be so naïve as to think child abuse is a Western Australian and Northern Territory specific problem, as this insidious exploitation of children is a national endemic.

Back in 2000 the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence Report noted, “many families are now trapped in environments where deviance and atrocities have become accepted as normal behaviour.”

Years later the Gordon Inquiry (pdf file 3.92MB) reported, "the statistics paint a frightening picture of what could only be termed an ‘epidemic’ of family violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities". Co-author Sue Gordon commented: “This is not only by non-Aboriginal predators, but by their very own families. Without both Aboriginal women and Aboriginal men standing up and saying no more family violence and no more child abuse, the future for Aboriginal children will only lie in higher statistics of Aboriginal youth suicide or higher Aboriginal imprisonment rates.”

One of the most poignant points Gordon made in the report was “land and reconciliation are major issues, but without our families and children safe from family violence and child abuse, they are but a hollow gesture for the future”.

I couldn’t agree more.

Surely if John Howard can spend millions of tax payer’s dollars ordering several hundred armed personnel to the Solomon Islands to round up a handful of thugs terrorising their sovereign nation, and have a navy ship sit off the coast as part of a contingency plan, why can’t he spend a couple of million dollars hunting down and ridding Indigenous communities of pedophiles? He can easily do that by taking off $10 million from his $2.2 billion defence budget allocation for the four new C-17 heavy lift aircrafts.

I put a challenge out to politicians and Aboriginal leaders around the nation, especially the National Indigenous Council, to find money to set up an “Indigenous CSI”, for want of a better word, to tackle the heinous crimes of child abuse. This team of special forensic investigators aligned with the federal police would be adequately resourced and on 24-hour call to be sent to any community - urban, rural and remote - at the first reported incidence of child abuse. State police would assist their federal colleagues in all investigations.

What is CSI , I hear you ask?

Nothing terribly original - I borrowed the concept from my favourite television show. Crime Scene Investigation (commonly referred to as CSI) is a popular television series that trails the investigations of a team of forensic scientists as they unravel the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths and crimes.

I don’t care to read another health report on the high incidence of children, some as young as three, contracting sexually transmitted diseases. I would suspect that some community members would be aware of the children at risk and who are harbouring these pedophiles.

The reason we are still discussing this disturbing topic is because some of the pedophiles have never been brought to justice. Don’t feel sorry for the perverts - if found guilty, jail them.

And the next time Treasurer Costello says “go forth and multiply” I hope all partners can proactively do so, if they desire, without the fear of worrying about the potential risk to their child, from predators, that arises from such an outcome.

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About the Author

Stephen Hagan is Editor of the National Indigenous Times, award winning author, film maker and 2006 NAIDOC Person of the Year.

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