By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
NORTHERN TERRITORY, Australia – Child protection workers in Australia’s Northern Territory have told officials that international aid is needed for starving Aboriginal children.
In a submission to the Northern Territory’s government inquiry, the workers said that the situation is so bad that assistance from organizations such as the Red Cross or Oxfam is necessary, a shocking claim to emerge from one of the world’s most affluent nations.
The disturbing allegations come in the midst of Australia’s campaign election.
The Darwin Remote Office of the Northern Territory Department of Families and Children, the group responsible for child protection, also reported that children are often left to wander alone at night while their parents go out drinking. The report accused the authorities in the regions of not taking the problem seriously enough.
The inquiry submission called for the placement of child protection officers in Aboriginal communities. Currently, the Darwin-based team includes four welfare workers and four community workers who are responsible for fourteen thousand people in Darwin.
“The staffing resources that the NT government allocates to provide child-protection services to these and other remote communities is grossly inadequate and allows for little more than superficial child-protection responses,” the Darwin Remote Office team said in its submission
The team also recommended the enactment of an unborn infant-at-risk child category of child protection, in addition to parenting classes. There is a high rate of teenage pregnancy in the region.
Drug and alcohol abuse by parents, in addition to lack of education and high costs of fresh food, are major causes of malnutrition in children.
Aboriginal people only make up two percent of Australia’s population, yet suffer from high rates of imprisonment and mental health issues.
The inquiry came just days before the United Nations announced that it plans to examine Australia’s human rights record. Amnesty International’s Claire Mallinson says that Australia has failed to comply with human rights, particularly with respect to the Northern Territory region.
For more information, please see:
ABC Radio Australia – UN to critique Australia’s human rights record – 9 August 2010
SOS Children’s Village – Children from cut -off native communities have been found starving in one of the world’s richest countries – 6 August 2010
The Independent – Children found starving in rural Australia – 5 August 2010
Radio New Zealand – Severe malnourishment in young Aborigines reported – 5 August 2010
BBC – Aboriginal children ‘starving’, welfare workers say – 4 August 2010
The Australian – Indigenous children in remote centres ‘starving’ – 3 August 2010
