Why is violence and bigotry in Australia so impossible to curtail?

Bullying

Recently, we opened our newspapers and read the tragic story of a seven-year-old blind boy who is forced to experience bullying at school. According to the Herald Sun and other media outlets on December 2, 2009, “Brave little Tyler Fishlock” - “who captured the hearts of Victorians after having both his eyes removed to save his life from cancer - has been beaten with a ruler and a xylophone stick, kicked and punched, pushed, and had scissors clicked dangerously in front of this face”. Why was he treated this way? Because he is different? The bulwark against honouring and respecting difference is commonplace in our society. Witness the comments from Tyler’s school:

When contacted by the Herald Sun, college director Patrick Waring said the Fishlocks had no right to demand the boy be removed …"Parents are in no position - it doesn't matter who they are - to tell us ... what they want done with other people's children," Mr Waring said.

"These are six-year-olds who are having a bit of trouble getting on with each other. We are not talking about high-end bullying, it is just spasmodic bad behaviour." He soon called back to say an agreement had been reached and the boy would be moved.

It took a public campaign to get the school to act against this violence. Instead “bad behaviour” was viewed as normal behaviour. We might liken this to the bad behaviour of footballers that can end in glassing a girlfriend, or sexual assault and/or rape. Or the bad behaviour of spouses that sometimes ends in murder. What constitutes bad behaviour and should we be tolerating it? What are we teaching our children; that it is OK to be badly behaved even if it is hurting someone?

The Department of Education has been plagued with similar cases of school bullying, which in some instances have lead to student suicides. Bullying victim Alex Wildman was the second teenager to take his own life after being targeted by students at the Kadina High School, in Lismore on the Far North Coast. He had been bullied over a long period and no one came to his aid.

Violence breeds violence

Violence in general has risen in Australia and will continue to rise unless we change the narrative of violence that circulates all areas of our society. This is especially problematic in small communities that do not have diverse populations and a wide range of ideas to compare. Small communities are often the places where abuses are best hidden.

In a recent Ombudsman’s report South Gippsland was said to be one of the worst areas for displaying chronic dysfunction in its Human Services. This is largely due to the fact that the Human Services’ workers are born and bred into small towns and into the cultures they are meant to redress. Being in and of the state as a strategy for reform might work in urban areas but it doesn’t work in small towns where people who do not adhere to the unwritten laws quickly become ostracised.

The same scathing Ombudsman’s report went on to detail the fact that almost a quarter of abused children were not given case workers and it said that some staff manipulated documents to meet performance targets. This is affirmation that government policy is more important than people, even when kids are dying.

The police view

Victorian Police Commissioner Simon Overland concedes it may take decades for police to end alcohol-fuelled violence on Melbourne’s city streets.

In Victoria assaults were up 1.9 per cent over robberies at 0.9 per cent in 2008. Other figures revealed almost 100,000 women a year experience sexual assault. Child abuse figures have gone through the roof according to the Ombudsman’s Report, which highlighted the way “Victoria’s vulnerable children have been left exposed to paedophiles”.

Something of an irony when you have the Police Department fighting to bring pedophiles to justice and Human Services providing them with victims. Not a problem for the Minister. The embattled Community Services Minister Lisa Neville saw no reason to resign her position. Violence just happens doesn’t it? One wonders if the Minister would feel the same if it were her kids being deprived of a happy and fulfilling future. One wonders if she fully understands the power of narrative to bring about generational violence and abuse. Who does understand the power of narrative?

More than half of Australia’s women will face some form of sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. We don’t know how much violence and bigotry contributes to generational disabilities or teenage suicide. What does seem clear is if you happen to have a child who is autistic then you must go overseas to get adequate services. This government has written the “spectrum” kids off as not worthy of help.

Under these circumstances it is becoming very difficult for the average Australian to comprehend the nature of this social upheaval. We can retell the story in order to eliminate some of these acts. We could have a non-violent, egalitarian society. It is something we must do to turn the abusive situation around and make Australia safer for everyone.