Strident call to get rid of abusers
A QUEENSLAND Aboriginal leader has demanded that child abusers be kicked out of indigenous communities.
Donna Kawane, a former head of the Central Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agency, said paedophiles were returning to harm children after being let out of jail.
“The Department of Corrective Services sends paedophiles – repeat offenders – back into the communities without anyone knowing,’’ she said yesterday.
“They should never be allowed to go back to those communities, no matter what the family says. Every time I hear a paedophile has been released from jail I shudder.’’
Ms Kawane said drug abuse was also causing harm to the children.
“Ice is a huge issue but there is not enough rehabilitation and no monitoring,’’ she said.
Ms Kawane said abusing children had never been part of indigenous culture.
“Hiding behind culture to perpetuate violence against children is the biggest load of bull I have heard in my life,’’ she said.
The Federal Assistant Minister for Children and Families, David Gillespie, wants to relax rules requiring abused Aboriginal kids to be placed with relatives or other indigenous families, so that white families may care for them.
He said the need to keep Aboriginal children in indigenous communities “doesn’t trump other issues’’ and that “in small communities, if a family is dysfunctional, that’s not satisfactory’’.
But Queensland Minister for Child Safety Di Farmer yesterday said it was “outrageous’’ to suggest that “simply removing Aboriginal children from Aboriginal families would solve child safety issues’’.
“When there is harm we need to intervene, but ripping children out of their communities and severing all ties with culture and family causes longterm harm,’’ she said.
National Children’s Commissioner Megan Mitchell said indigenous kids made up a third of the children in Australia’s child- protection system.
She said she supported the adoption of abused children in certain cases but it was preferable that a “safe family member’’ care for them.