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Boris
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We live in a Country where monsters are real.
Alleged rape of toddler among more than 700 NT child sexual offence cases in five years, police say
More than 20 notifications were made to child services about the Tennant Creek household where a two-year-old girl was allegedly raped, but Territory Families maintains there were "no specific concerns".
The toddler was allegedly raped in the outback town, about 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs, last week.
Territory Families has confirmed the department received 21 notifications about the household dating back to August 2015, but only six had been substantiated.
The child's uncle, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said eight notifications had been made to child services in the two months leading up to the incident.
Sexual offence cases involving children under 16 years in NT:
2013: 118
2014: 125
2015: 149
2016: 163
2017: 149
2018 (to Jan 31): 10
Territory Families Chief Executive Ken Davies said reports made about the household related to domestic violence and alcohol.
"In terms of the notifications we received, there were no specific concerns that came to Territory Families about particular harm to this child of a sexual nature," he said.
"They were not substantial enough to take the child out of this household and away from the mother."
"What we did was where these issues were substantiated, we responded and we put in family support services to support the family and the mother in that household."
There has been 714 cases of sexual offence involving children under the age of 16 during the past five years in the Northern Territory, police revealed on Thursday.
Already there have been 10 this year.
According to police, there were 20 notifications from NT Police since July 2015 about the family of the child who was allegedly raped, and 16 of those were directly to Territory Families.
The NT Government has since ordered an immediate investigation into its handling of the case and a review of all cases where children had been subject to multiple notifications.
The Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison conceded the government had "failed" the child.
Dozens of letters have been sent to government ministers in recent months outlining concerns for safety, but locals say they went unanswered until reports of the alleged rape surfaced on Tuesday.
They have also questioned the distribution of police resources, with the town's only mobile CCTV camera unit relocated to Alice Springs.
Territory Families 'disconnected' from Aboriginal community
The girl's uncle said his family was distressed by what had happened and called for less Top End-based decision-making on local issues.
"There were concerns about this little girl and nothing really happened," he said.
"Eight notifications in the last two months and they haven't sent one to this office here because they assessed it as not high risk. How do they know? They don't live here.
"Failure after failure after failure, how much longer can we put up with this?"
Anyinginyi Health Aboriginal Corporation chair Ross Jakamarra Williams, who is also a traditional owner of Tennant Creek, said local police and government agencies had failed the community for years.
"The Department (of Territory Families) employees do not work in the interest of this community because they themselves are totally disconnected from Aboriginal families and the real issues they face," he said.
"What I have lived and witnesses in the past two weeks is intolerant and unacceptable for any community in this country."
'For God's sake, think of the children'
The Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister and Northern Territory Senator Nigel Scullion said he was "shocked and appalled" by the "horrific allegations".
Senator Scullion will visit the outback town today, and said he had asked the NT Government to be "as open and transparent as possible" about the circumstances leading up to the incident.
"To be absolutely clear, while many facts about the tragic circumstances are still unknown, incidents like these are not unique to or characteristics of being Indigenous," he said in a statement.
"The reality is the vast majority of Indigenous families love and care for their children, raising them in healthy and happy homes, connected to their land and their culture."
On Wednesday more than 100 residents gathered in the remote central Australian town demanding a united and local approach to fixing the government's "failure" and protecting the town's children.
Federal Minister for Indigenous Health Ken Wyatt said the incident was unacceptable, but warned against finger-pointing.
"It's easy to say an agency hasn't responded, or a government hasn't responded," he told ABC Radio Darwin.
"But on a broader front, as Indigenous Australians, we've been asking for a reduction in the number of aboriginal children in out-of-home care."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-22/indigenous-groups-urge-government-to-address-tennant-creek-abuse/9473002
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