Forcing the Victorian government to hold the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry was huge. But the recommendations of this Inquiry fall well short of what is needed. We will be speaking to the offices of Zoe Daniel (Federal MP for the Beaumaris/Bayside area) and of Catherine King (Federal MP for Ballarat) again next week. Both MPs have indicated a desire to meet regarding the outcomes our petition seeks, including Zoe Daniel attending the next Victorian Survivors and Supporters lunch held in Melbourne.
We are keen to gain Ms Daniel and Ms King's insights and support regarding establishing a joint federal, state and terrority taskforce in response to the findings of the Australian Study into Child Maltreatment, released last year. Which found "child maltreatment is widespread among Australians (aged 16-65+)
- 32% experienced physical abuse
- 28.5% experienced sexual abuse
- 30.9% experienced emotional abuse
- 8.9% experienced neglect
- 39.6% experienced exposure to domestic violence
- 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 5 boys experienced sexual abuse
Recommendations
- Australia requires a national, coordinated approach to this public health imperative. To date, our failure has been attributable in large part because we have lacked political will, ethical motivation, sufficient investment, and fragmentation between levels of government. It is imperative that Australian Government agencies collaborate with States and Territories, through financial resourcing and policy frameworks, supported by a new model of sustainable national governance architecture to ensure child maltreatment is treated as an ongoing national concern. This infrastructure is required to support the mechanisms necessary to ensure this commitment is secure, stable, and sustained, and endures across political cycles."
https://www.acms.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/3846.1_ACMS_A4Report_C1_Digital-Near-final.pdf
The waste of tax payer dollars on individual state and territory governments doing their own thing (often badly and always underfunded) is ridiculous. Federal government initiatives not fully acted upon by the Victorian government include 60% of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission).
Just one of many examples where the Victorian government has failed to implement recommendations of Federal government investments and initiatives, including initiatives and recommendations of the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse.
Our government instead has spent money on just tinkering around the edges, or doing nothing at all, on what is rightfully been described as a national public health emergency in the Australian Study into Child Maltreatment report.
Examples of Australian national taskforces include National Dust Disease Taskforce, Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce, and the Operation Sovereign Borders (Joint Agency Task Force).
Whilst there are several peak bodies and organisations in Australia advocating for, and doing great work in child safety and child sexual abuse, we need what the Australian Study into Child Maltreatment recommended.
Coordinated funding and action.
What our petition seeks, the full implementation of Recommendation 9.1 of the Royal Commission, as a pilot in two regions of Victoria, is an example of what could be a coordinated, national initiative. That could then be replicated nationally.
Lives continue to be lost, and unneeded suffering and injustices continue to be experienced, by ~30% of Australians who have experienced child sexual abuse. Due to chronic inaction on, and underfunding of existing recommendations.
We say enough.
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Thank you to all our supporters! We are stronger together and continue our advocacy work together.