Child abuse in the Family Court

Further, it seems rare for the children’s lawyers, who are appointed by the Family Court, to actually speak to their clients, despite their guidelines specifically requiring them to do so and these children’s rights to this expression under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Recently there has been an unprecedented and increasingly vocal outcry in Australia for the effective protection of our children. This follows the alleged starvation to death of baby twins; dissolute child neglect cases; the alleged starvation of Shellay Ward to death; and the discovery of the tiny body of little Dean Shillingsworth floating in a pond in a suitcase, to mention just a tiny proportion of the hundreds of thousands of reported child abuse cases.

One must ask if the Family Court of Australia, which repeatedly proclaims that it acts only in "the best interests of the child" cannot get it right with regards to its “experts”, to effective child protection and the psychiatry of child abuse and neglect, what is really happening in this country to our children behind closed doors, courtesy of the secrecy of section 121 of the Family Law Act.

When is the denial and rhetoric going to cease so that we can offer sincere and tangible hope to the children of this land?