Minister tackles welfare concern

WHITE families should be allowed to adopt abused Aboriginal children to save them from rape, assault and neglect, the federal children’s minister said yesterday.

David Gillespie, the Assistant Minister for Children and Families, wants to relax rules requiring Aboriginal children to be placed with relatives or other indigenous families.

He said the need to keep Aboriginal children in black communities “doesn’t trump other issues’’ and called for more widespread adoption.

“In small communities, if a family is dysfunctional that’s not satisfactory,’’ he told News Corp. “I don’t want them recycled back into harm.

“I’ve had my eyes opened in the last couple of weeks … looking at STD rates (among Aboriginal children) is just mind-blowing.’’

Dr Gillespie said it was “pretty poor’’ only 143 of the nearly 48,000 Australian children in foster care last year had been adopted.

“Foster care is not ideal but there is a reluctance to put them in a more permanent situation for fear of creating another Stolen Generation,’’ Dr Gillespie said.

“I’m more worried about creating an abandoned and damaged generation. If a child is being raped we can’t just say it’s OK on cultural grounds.”

Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine – who chaired the Abbott government’s indigenous Advisory Council and is a former national president of the ALP – yesterday called on police, judges and welfare workers to “be tough’’ on abuse in Aboriginal communities.

He said “political correctness nonsense’’ prevented Aboriginal children getting help.

“You’ve got to be tough,’’ he said. “People are constantly talking about cultural issues, but what sort of culture are kids living in if their parents are drugged up and drunk every day? If they’re being abused, we need to put them into safe places.’’

Mr Mundine said perpetrators “need to go to jail – they should lock them up and throw away the key’’.

“We need to support the police because they do a tough job – but when they see abuse and take kids away they get called racists,’’ he said.

Mr Mundine said he was upset so many Australians had marched to protest against “Invasion Day’’ while ignoring the epidemic of child abuse.

“Why aren’t they marching and screaming for the kids?’’ he said. “The abuse of Aboriginal children is the most moral challenge to the Australian nation and we need to fix it. Suicide rates among children in the Aboriginal community are a direct result of this (abuse).’’