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Avoiding another stolen generation

EDITORIAL

22 August 2004 - The words of Lowitja O'Donoghue, a Yankunytjatjara woman from South Australia's far north and a distinguished Australian, have found new echoes. "Nothing, absolutely nothing could ever compensate for taking me away from my mother, family, culture and belonging," she once said.

The mere suggestion that Victoria is fostering another stolen generation of Aboriginal children is cause for genuine alarm. That a reprise of such a divisive social injustice is being played out in this state in the 21st century - albeit with good intentions - seems astounding. Yet even more disturbing is the reason: a spiralling crisis in indigenous child abuse and neglect.

The rate of abuse and neglect among Aboriginal children in Victoria is three times the national average. Indigenous children are eight times more likely to be proved to be victims of abuse or neglect than non-indigenous children. They are 10 times more likely to be the subject of court orders and 14 times more likely to have spent some time in care away from their home, according to a report prepared last year for the Victorian Department of Human Services.

Where such cases are dealt with by the DHS, the departmental preference is that protection workers should first try to place indigenous children within their extended family. A second option is for placement with another Aboriginal family. As a last resort, they are to be placed with a local non-indigenous family. Despite this, 43 per cent of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care in Victoria now reside with non-indigenous families. The DHS maintains that there are not enough Aboriginal families to meet the demand for such placements.

Much of the problem centres on Mildura, where reports of child abuse and neglect are the highest in Victoria - if not Australia. More than half the state's reported cases of indigenous family violence occur there. The deaths in 2002 of two children continue to raise questions about the role played by the authorities. And at the core of Mildura's problem is a two-year dispute between the Mildura Aboriginal Corporation and DHS about where and by whom decisions about the welfare of abused and neglected children should be made.

It appears obvious that the centralised process is not working. It cannot work without the support of the local Aboriginal community. If gaining that support entails giving local Aboriginal groups a degree of autonomy, then DHS needs to work harder to achieve this. As a bare minimum, the department needs to be more open to, and receptive of, local concerns. Failing that, the responsible minister, Sherryl Garbutt, must intervene. That she has allowed the matter to fester for so long is a disgrace.

Source: The Age

Seeds of another stolen generation

By William Birnbauer
Edmund Tadros

22 August 2004 - Indigenous child abuse and neglect have reached crisis point in Victoria, with Aboriginal children vastly overrepresented in the state care system and widespread concerns that a new stolen generation is emerging.

A state Department of Human Services report shows that the rate of substantiated child abuse and neglect in Victoria's indigenous communities is almost four times the national average for Aborigines.

Almost half of all Aboriginal children removed from their families are placed with non-indigenous carers, where they face losing contact with their culture. Such placements are not in line with the DHS' preferred policy.

The worst area for child abuse and neglect is in Mildura and the Loddon Mallee district in the north-west of the state. It is also in this region that relations between the DHS and local Aboriginal organisations have broken down.

An investigation by The Sunday Age has uncovered a serious falling out between the DHS and senior staff at the Mildura Aboriginal Corporation. The unresolved dispute was sparked by public criticism of the DHS in 2002 by the corporation's family services co-ordinator, Sally Scherger. Her comments followed the deaths of two Aboriginal children, Jindalee Sibley, 15, and Joedan Andrews, 2.

A coroner heard that Jindalee, a young mother, was allowed to live with a 28-year-old drug user and that the department was aware of the situation.

Independent Mildura MP Russell Savage told The Sunday Age that the decision to allow Jindalee to live with her "drug-taking dirtbag" boyfriend was "tantamount to putting her in a box". (See "Young deaths", right) Commenting on the over-representation of indigenous children in the protection system, the head of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, Muriel Cadd, called for an independent indigenous children's commissioner in Victoria.

Ms Cadd also said an Aboriginal community organisation, such as VACCA, should be responsible for children under guardianship orders. Currently, children placed under such orders by the Children's Court are the responsibility of the secretary of the DHS.

The changes would help VACCA monitor the whereabouts of Aboriginal children, many of whom are placed by mainstream agencies. About 43 per cent of Aboriginal children in foster care are with non-indigenous families.

This is despite the DHS policy that protection workers should first try to place a removed indigenous child with extended family, or if none is available, a local Aboriginal family, and as a last resort, with a local non-indigenous family.

"Contemporary removal is as big an issue today as it was 70 years ago," Ms Cadd said. "There's still too many children (being taken). We are quick to take children away, but it takes a lot more to get them back home in terms of resources."

More money was needed for family support and reunification, she said. VACCA was funded for only 2.5 staff to work with families. "How do you convince government about investing money in early intervention?" Ms Cadd asked.

Janet Stanley, of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, said: "Some of these people who are now parents never grew up in a family. They grew up in an institution. So how do they know how to parent? They are dislocated, traumatised."

Ms Cadd said about 500 Aboriginal children were in care in Victoria last year. After two years with a family, children became eligible for permanent care placements. "Unless we do something drastic now, then 43 per cent of our children will be lost to the Aboriginal community two years down the track," she said.

A spokesman for the DHS said that while the preference was to place children with indigenous families, there were not enough Aboriginal families available.

He said the department was concerned about the over-representation of indigenous children in the protection system and had funded several programs aimed at enhancing parenting skills and tackling family violence.

As well, the Family Innovation Support Project had been established in several regions, including Mildura, to provide earlier intervention for families frequently notified to child protection authorities.

However, despite a long list of DHS and consultants' reports on indigenous welfare, many of the problems identified years ago remain unresolved today. The statistics still shock.

Indigenous children are almost eight times more likely to be proved to have been victims of abuse or neglect than non-indigenous children; more than 10 times more likely to be subject to court orders and 14 times more likely to have spent time in out-of-home care, according to the 2003 Protecting Children report, which was commissioned by the DHS.

The report also found the problem was getting worse, noting that between 1996-97 and 2001-2002 the number of substantiations of child abuse or neglect increased by 66 per cent for indigenous children compared with an increase of 6 per cent for other children.

A DHS source said that even though the department used a lower standard of care when evaluating indigenous families, Aboriginal children were "still coming into care at 10 times the rate of white kids".

"It's a really difficult area because anyone who works in that area would say Aboriginal kids are left in far worse conditions than would ever be tolerated for a white child of the same age," the source said.

In Victoria, permanent care assessments are done by VACCA. The agency's Lakidjeka Crisis Service also supplies staff who attend along with protection workers when child abuse notifications are filed and case plans are prepared.

A lack of funding in the past had meant VACCA was unable to provide a comprehensive statewide service, resulting in long delays in assessing carers, especially in regional Victoria.

In Mildura, one family of four children had to wait eight years for an assessment by VACCA.

Other co-operatives told The Sunday Age they regarded VACCA as a puppet of the DHS, referring to the organisation as MACCA, or the Melbourne Aboriginal Child Care Agency.

Robert Johnson, chairman of the Swan Hill Aboriginal Community Justice Panel, said VACCA was "useless" in supporting Aboriginal rights.

"VACCA comes in like a whirlwind without consulting with anyone," he said. "There's as much fear today as there was 20 to 30 years ago that DHS are going to take their kids. VACCA will stand right alongside and not say anything. They don't provide any support."

VACCA head Ms Cadd agreed there was a history of fear and distrust in local communities, but said her organisation was negotiating memorandums of understanding with communities on an advocacy service for children referred to protection workers.

As well, $1.7 million in funding had helped pay for 23 positions across the state, whereas previously there had been only five, she said. "This Government is the first and only government in Australia that is funding this (advocacy service)."

Source: The Age

Young deaths a backdrop to bitter power play

William Birnbauer

August 22 2004 - Mildura is an Aboriginal welfare basket case. Reports of child abuse and neglect are the highest in Victoria, if not Australia: 83 notifications per 1000 children compared with 26 for Melbourne's non-indigenous community.

The region's level of family violence would not be tolerated in any white community. Police figures show the Loddon Mallee had 335 victims of indigenous domestic violence out of a state total of 659 in the 12 months to June 2003.

Overshadowing the cold statistics of broken lives are the tragic deaths of two indigenous children whose care by welfare authorities continues to raise awkward questions.

Against this sad backdrop, a bitter and unproductive dispute has raged for two years between senior members of the Mildura Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) and the Department of Human Services.

Terry Garwood, the department's Loddon Mallee regional director, in a letter to the corporation refers to a climate of misunderstanding and mistrust, and in a memorandum to DHS directors, says a "breakdown of trust between MAC & DHS . . . is affecting the working relationship significantly".

At the heart of the row is a philosophical clash over how best to operate a child welfare system that is failing its community.

Sally Scherger, MAC family services co-ordinator, wants greater control by the co-operative. "I'm fighting for local self-management, self-determination, and they (the DHS) don't want that," she says.

She argues that MAC's staff have an intimate knowledge of local families and should be able to conduct assessments of people who want to permanently care for Aboriginal children, and should be able to advocate for children who are the subject of abuse and neglect notifications.

These functions are now the responsibility of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency, which some locals wryly say should be called the Melbourne Aboriginal Child Care Agency.

The DHS appeared willing to make concessions in early 2002 - even locating an advocacy service at MAC - but the goodwill ended dramatically when Ms Scherger criticised the department over the deaths of ward of the state and 15-year-old mother Jindalee Sibley in July 2002, and just five months later, two-year-old Joedan Andrews.

Not only did the department then refuse MAC's request for extra responsibilities, it embarked on an extraordinary denigration of Ms Scherger. In one memorandum to Community Services Minister Sherryl Garbutt, a senior bureaucrat accuses Ms Scherger of "ranting (description used deliberately) about the 'stolen generation' . . . whenever legal, policy or process issues got in the way of her desired outcome".

The memo said she was "particularly disruptive" on child protection and did not understand the department's role.

Other documents claimed she had misrepresented herself to indigenous community members and was unprofessional, and suggested she be charged under the Children and Young Persons Act.

Ms Scherger, 55, burst into tears when she saw the documents. She was puzzled and upset, having only sought access to them under freedom of information law as part of a campaign for a bigger role in child protection.

Independent Mildura MP Russell Savage, who has twice unsuccessfully tried to mediate the dispute, believes the DHS criticism of Ms Scherger is harsh. He is scathing about the department's role in the care of Jindalee Sibley. He says its decision to allow Jindalee to live with her "drug-taking dirtbag" boyfriend was "tantamount to putting her in a box".

"I was in the police force a long time, and I know how the system works," Mr Savage says. "I share some of her (Ms Scherger's) concerns." The Mildura Aboriginal Corporation was "one of the better operators in the state", he said.

Twenty kilometres north of Mildura, near the NSW town of Dareton, is an Aboriginal housing estate where the lives of many of the inhabitants are as scarred and damaged as the burnt-out cars that litter their yards and the nearby tip.

It is here, at the Namatjira Avenue mission, that little Joedan Andrews apparently was hit by a car and killed during a party in December 2002. Parts of his body were later found near the rubbish tip, but no charges have been laid.

Perhaps it was inevitable there would be finger-pointing over his death: DHS protection workers and the Aboriginal corporation, through its family preservation program, were involved with Joedan and his family.

While police were still searching for Joedan, Ms Scherger told a reporter: ". . . we heard the department had closed the case, claiming there were no protective concerns. We were stunned."

This newspaper quote is one of several attributed to Ms Scherger that the department recorded, analysed and dismissed in memorandums to senior directors.

DHS documents say that the Mildura Aboriginal Corporation was aware of the decision to close Joedan's protective order and that "there was no record of contact from MAC disputing (the) decision. If MAC were so concerned then why did they not refer/notify to protective services?" it asks.

The DHS also accuses Ms Scherger of refusing to allow an Aboriginal service representative to accompany protection workers on a visit to Joedan's home.

Furthermore, documents show the department considered charging Ms Scherger under a section of the Children and Young Persons Act for refusing to provide protection workers with information on the whereabouts of Joedan's sibling.

Ms Scherger told The Sunday Age that after Joedan disappeared, his mother, a sibling and an aunt were taken to a safe house by NSW police and that she had provided this information to the DHS, but had not been able to supply an address.

DHS disputes this version of events. However, in April last year, the department's regional chief, Mr Garwood, wrote to MAC saying that "in the interests of seeking to improve our working relationships, it has been decided not to proceed" with the charges.

What MAC and Ms Scherger could not have known at the time was that on the same day Mr Garwood also wrote to Ms Garbutt and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gavin Jennings, telling them that MAC had provided explanations for Ms Scherger's actions and, while DHS did not accept their accuracy, "it is considered it would be difficult to absolutely refute them in court".

Three weeks before speaking out about Joedan, Ms Scherger was asked by reporters to comment on a coroner's finding on the death of young mother Jindalee Sibley. Jindalee, a deeply troubled teenager who had been the subject of eight child-care notifications, died of a drug overdose.

The coroner heard that Jindalee had lived with a 28-year-old drug user. This was known but not condoned by DHS protective workers. The man has since pleaded guilty to two sex-related counts involving a child under 16.

The coroner found that no one had contributed to Jindalee's death.

"Our kids' lives are worth less than nothing," Ms Scherger complained, adding that the DHS had failed as a parent and was not being held accountable.

Mr Savage was also dismayed at the DHS's role.

"I find the whole thing very disturbing. I know the family, they are a very dysfunctional family, but nevertheless the girl should have had better protection than she received," he said.

He said MAC and Ms Scherger tried to highlight some issues "and nobody listened to them, and, of course, the girl died".

Ms Scherger's statements sparked an immediate written rebuke from the DHS, which said a "close partnership" was needed and reminded MAC chief executive Barry Stewart that funding for a child protection service at the corporation was only at a pilot stage.

The letter warned: "The department is very concerned about circumstances that indicate there may be a lack of understanding of the respective roles of the two organisations and the legal and policy frameworks within which protective services operate."

Mr Stewart's reply was blistering: "This shifting of blame by making spurious allegations regarding our relationship with your department is achieved by lying and deceit - you never appear to want our side of the story . . ."

An attempt to resolve the issues failed spectacularly. A meeting of senior DHS child protection and juvenile justice directors and Mr Stewart and a MAC director was organised for January 24 last year.

Phil McCann, then DHS acting community services manager for Loddon Mallee, was on his way to Mildura for the meeting when he was told that Mr Stewart wanted to cancel because of an injury sustained in a car accident several days earlier.

According to DHS documents, Mr McCann told the MAC receptionist to pass on a message that ". . . the department is bloody unhappy with the current situation and Barry needs to understand that unless the relationship issues are sorted quickly the difficulties would mean failure of the . . . pilot and potentially put other services at risk".

Even though Ms Scherger was not aware of it until she sighted the DHS documents, the relationship deteriorated further in the next few months.

Memos from Mr Garwood and others to the upper echelons of the department appear to target her. ". . . it is clear that Ms Sally Scherger . . . does not understand the requirement for MAC to be professionally involved in supporting the department's statutory child protection responsibilities. Her comments to the media confirm this . . ."

Other documents state that she has "no sense of partnership"; that she "lacks preparedness to work with CP (child protection)"; and that "most disappointingly she did not see any problems with her comments to the media, and she said she stood by everything she said".

MAC has repeatedly sought to be gazetted as an "Aboriginal agency" under the Children and Young Persons Act, which it believes would enable it to provide permanent care assessments of care givers, and be involved in case planning for children under protection orders.

The FoI documents show that in late 2002 - shortly before Ms Scherger's public criticisms - senior DHS directors, including Mr Garwood, supported the gazettal, even though they did not believe it would give MAC any extra powers. Rather, they based their support on good faith.

But that evaporated dramatically after Ms Scherger spoke out about Joedan Andrews.

In March, the department's top public servant, Patricia Faulkner, told MAC that because of the "significant deterioration" in relations with the MAC she could not allow the corporation to be gazetted. The matter would be reconsidered when "the current concerns" are resolved.

Russell Savage believes MAC should be able to "look after child welfare issues in their own right. They've (the DHS) refused to give them accreditation for no good reason".

Ms Scherger wants self-determination and control. "I am not a shit-stirrer. I fight for the community. I will always fight for community and they don't like it."

Two weeks ago, an umbrella organisation representing half a dozen Aboriginal co-operatives in the Loddon Mallee supported MAC's gazettal.

A DHS spokesman said "a number of concerns" existed about MAC, and the department was working with the corporation "in the hope these can be resolved as quickly as possible".

Source: The Age

An inter-racial success story

By William Birnbauer

22 August 2004 - Fourteen-year-old Kathleen Sailor and her three siblings were placed into the care of a non-indigenous family in Mildura eight years ago, but have managed to stay in close contact with their Koori culture.

Kathleen, a confident girl who would like to be a physical-education teacher, says her permanent carer's colour is not an issue. "She is a lovely lady and that's all that matters."

She has no regrets about leaving her natural mother. "I reckon it was a good choice because we're growing up to be good kids and stuff. I don't think that would have exactly happened if we were with Mum."

She says her mother visited her and her two sisters and 10-year-old brother several months ago. "We were happy to see her, but knew nothing would change."

Kathleen's permanent carer, Barbara Harvey, who has four grown children of her own, says she probably didn't know five Koori people before caring for the children. "Now I probably know 500 at least," she says. "I haven't robbed them of their culture; they've shown me their culture. I've shown them stability."

Sally Scherger, the family services co-ordinator with the Mildura Aboriginal Corporation, says the relationship between the children and the family is a beautiful one that has worked "because the carer has become part of the community, part of the dance group and is on the Koori committee at the school".

Not all permanent-care placements work as well, and the State Government's policy is to place Aboriginal children with non-indigenous families only as a last resort.

Ms Scherger recalls that one Aboriginal child was raised as an Indian by a non-indigenous family that considered he would be better accepted that way. When the boy grew up, he reconnected with his Aboriginal family, who were heavy drinkers. Ms Scherger says the man unravelled, and died from alcohol poisoning after four years.

Source: The Age

Neglect of Aboriginal children shames us all

LETTERS

August 29, 2004 - The way Aboriginal children are neglected by the welfare system shames us all. With 500 children in care ('Seeds of another stolen generation', 22/8), it beggars belief that the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (VACCA) is expected to provide support to indigenous families across Victoria with 2.5 staff; and that valuable resources are squandered on demarcation disputes between that agency, the Mildura Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) and the Department of Human Services.

The real failure is in the areas of prevention, family support, capacity building at community level and, most of all, education.

School completion rates for indigenous youth are still at 38 per cent compared with 80 per cent for the wider community.

An education system that treats Aboriginal culture as a footnote at best, will not attract and retain Aboriginal children, yet we are slow to develop alternatives or protect institutions already in existence.

Worawa Aboriginal College, the only registered school in Victoria owned and run by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal youth, provides an excellent curriculum education and cultural reinforcement.

Despite this record, the school is struggling for survival because authorities apply a subsidy funding model based on the ludicrous assumption that its parents are able to pay fees, including for that third of students referred to the college by the department.

Worawa provides a model for indigenous education that could reduce the number of childrenin care.

Sid Spindler, Balwyn

Sid Spindler is a former Commonwealth Government Minister

Source: The Age

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