The savagery of abuse

Just when you think the most vulnerable members of our Indigenous communities, women and children, are finally getting attention from the right people in positions of influence - as a consequence of the publication The Little Children Are Sacred - along comes a ruling from a judge that sets our cause back to the days of the caveman.

With no offence intended for devotees of the caveman I’m aghast at the audacity of Cairns-based District Court Judge Sarah Bradley to not impose a custodial sentence for the nine perpetrators who pleaded guilty to the pack rape of a 10-year-old girl in the remote Cape York Indigenous community of Aurukun.

Tony Koch, chief reporter of The Australian, wrote on December 10 the most probing yet nauseating account of child abuse I have ever read.

Under the dramatic front page headline "Child rape sentence pathetic" Koch lays bare the savagery of abuse that continues to afflict not only Aurukun but lamentably a significant number of our remote Indigenous communities.

Former Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough raised another frightful sexual assault on a minor in Parliament on September 12 last year when he said: "I am … aware of the allegation of the rape of a 12-year-old boy in Maningrida in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory ... [the boy] was raped by five juveniles and five adults from that community."

In his article Koch reported “Nine males who pleaded guilty last month to gang-raping a 10-year-old girl at the Aurukun Aboriginal community on Cape York have escaped a prison term, with the sentencing judge saying the child victim ‘probably agreed’ to have sex with them”.

I had to stop reading when I read the phrase “probably agreed” as it sat so incongruously with my perceptions of what I believed a judge’s stance on such issues would be: I simply had to go over those words again in case I misread Koch’s article.

The reason I was so incensed by that particular observation of the judge is because I have a daughter who has only just turned 12. In many ways the age of the victim plays appreciably into this debate, as does race, and only exacerbates the significance of those wretched words from an eminent judicial figure who, incidentally, is also the President of the Australian Association of Women Judges and a member of the District Court Judges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee.

To make matters worse, if it can be so, Koch’s article also referred to Judge Bradley’s order that the six teenage juveniles not even have a conviction recorded for the 2005 offence, and that they be placed on a 12-month probation order. When sentencing the co-accused on October 24 at Aurukun, Judge Bradley noted: "The girl involved was not forced and she probably agreed to have sex with all of you."

Once again I’m flabbergasted at this unpardonable call by the judge and pose the obvious question - how can a 10-year-old girl consent willingly to participate in an unlawful act?

The State Attorney General Kerry Shine commenting on ABC radio on the day the story broke said, “It really is hard to imagine how these sentences are in line with community expectations. Under Queensland law a child under 12 cannot give consent to sexual intercourse.”

This case has clearly demonstrated a strong argument in favour of permanently relieving the judge of her duties - a position which she can no longer hold with any credibility.

Predictable outrage was aired on all media coverage of this extraordinary story from prominent Australians who are still coming to terms with this sickening crime: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expressed his dismay; Queensland Premier Anna Bligh called for a full inquiry into all judgments of sexual assault cases in Cape York over the past couple of years; and respected Indigenous leaders; Grace Smallwood, Bonnie Robinson and Sam Watson called for the immediate resignation of Judge Bradley.

Commendably Attorney-General Kerry Shine, on advice from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Leanne Clare, appealed the judgment.

In the days that followed Koch’s initial story there was further exposure of those complicit in this little girl’s case. The Courier-Mail revealed that the little girl in question was also the victim of serious sexual assaults when she was aged five and eight. The Australian produced transcripts of the sentencing on October 24 that revealed the Crown Prosecutor, Steve Carter, describing the gang rape - in which the girl contracted a sexually transmitted disease - as "consensual sex", saying: "To the extent I can't say it was consensual in the legal sense, but in the general sense, the non-legal sense, yes, it was."

Mr Carter suggested a non-custodial sentence for all the accused, including the three aged 17, 18 and 26.

In his brief submission on sentencing to Judge Bradley, Mr Carter said the Crown would not be asking any more than "for some form of supervisory order, form of probation, or some similar order to that".

He added that there was no victim impact material that could be considered by the court. "My submission in relation to this particular offence (rape) is the same that I make in relation to children of that age - of similar or the same age - is to quote, well, they're very naughty for doing what they're doing but it's really, in this case, it was a form of childish experimentation rather than one child being prevailed upon by another," Mr Carter told the court.

"Although she was very young, she knew what was going on and she had agreed to meet the children at this particular place and it was all by arrangement, so for that purpose."

The day after Koch’s second successive front page story in The Australian on December 11 that exposed the Crown Prosecutor and his travesty of justice in this case, Carter, was stood down from his position pending an investigation by his department.

It was further revealed by Koch, who spoke to a senior departmental official, that two new social workers who were appointed to the north in recent years expressed the view that putting an Indigenous child with white foster parents was another stolen generation. Koch also added that these new social workers convinced the department with this rubbish and the girl was taken from Cairns to Aurukun - against the wishes of her mother who was happy with the arrangements with the white foster parents - back to where she was being abused previously and where she had contracted syphilis as a little child.

Koch reported that the girl was constantly unsupervised in Aurukun, with the result that she was constantly raped.

After an internal Child Safety Departmental report into this case one of the officers was sacked and two others were suspended.

In a separate ruling in 2001 - that further demonstrates her incompetence to hold down her esteemed position - Judge Bradley imposed a wholly suspended jail term, without conviction, on a 17-year-old youth who raped his grandmother. The court was told the youth raped his grandmother while she was in a drunken sleep.

So what is the future for Aurukun and other remote Indigenous communities which seem to be incapable of policing their own citizens?

When The Courier-Mail journalist Peter Michael reported his conversation with Aurukun Mayor Neville Pootchamunka on December 11, the Mayor’s remarks raised more questions than answers.

“I don’t want to comment about it”, he said. “If I do, my community will read it and they will say the Mayor got involved. They will say I had something to do with it (the men getting off).

“I am not aware of the rape. Of course, I am the leader. Of course I have a strong opinion.”

He added: “I think this is all a lot of crap.”

Whether the Mayor was being evasive and subsequently misrepresented by The Courier-Mail I can’t comment - but suffice to say that he needs to seriously assess if he is the visionary leader that the Aurukun community needs at this dire time in their lives.

I would suggest Mayor Pootchamunka and his councillors read the paper titled Addressing Extreme Disadvantage Through Investment in Capability Development, presented by Dr Ken Henry, Secretary to the Treasury, to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Conference "Australia’s Welfare 2007" in Canberra on December 6.

In his paper Dr Henry outline seven steps, that if followed would go a long way to addressing the chronic social problems that many communities like Aurukun currently experience, including:

First, and fundamentally, there must be basic protective security from violence for Indigenous parents and children.

Second, there is strong international evidence that early childhood development interventions, coupled with parental support to develop appropriate at-home learning environments, provide a critical foundational base for young children.

Third, the home environment needs to be conducive to regular patterns of sleep and study, free from overcrowding and distraction.

Fourth, there needs to be ready access to suitable primary health service infrastructure.

Fifth, particularly in an environment where real jobs are not currently the norm, incentives in the welfare system cannot be allowed to work against the promotion of investment in human capital, particularly of children through the provision of safe and healthy living environments and their attendance at school.

Sixth, there must be a realistic prospect of an educated Indigenous person securing a real job, with the support of appropriate employment services.

Seventh, governance systems have to support the “political freedom” and “social opportunities” of local Indigenous people (both men and women) to be engaged in policy development

I hope Mayor Pootchamunka and his Aurukun councilors take the time to read Dr Henry’s insightful paper.

And a word of warning for those delinquent youths and misguided adults of Aurukun on the company they keep - to take heed of Denis Diderot famous quote: “We are far more liable to catch the vices than the virtues of our associates.”