Do you know which Federal and Victorian politicans have actively advocated for change to address both the prevalance and impact of, child sexual abuse in Australia? Given the Australian Child Maltreatment Study found that more than 1 in 3 girls experience Child Sexual Abuse and almost 1 in 5 boys experience Child Sexual Abuse, with girls experiencing double the rate of Child Sexual Abuse.
https://www.acms.au/findings/
Chronicity: when a child experiences Child Sexual Abuse, it rarely happens only once.
Up to 40% of prevalent mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, and substance abuse in Australia, stem from childhood maltreatment. The study estimates that addressing childhood maltreatment could prevent over 1.8 million cases of these disorders.
Do you know the track record of governments implementing existing recommendations to address child sexual abuse?
The Victorian government has implemented 60% of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse in principal only, ignoring the all important 'how' of the recommendations. The Victorian government has now stopped even reporting on progress and outcomes of their responses to this Royal Commission.
The Victorian Law Reform Commission's Improving the Justice System Response to Sexual Offences Report in 2021include many key changes the Victorian government has yet to act upon.
https://www.lawreform.vic.gov.au/publication/improving-the-justice-system-response-to-sexual-offences-report/
Australia does not even have a federal Minister for Children, despite"over half a million reports of child abuse last year in Australia, equating to, one report of violence, abuse or neglect of a child nearly every minute. It’s clear this is a national Emergency."
https://www.childhood.org.au/minister-for-children/
Children cannot vote, but we can.
The current politicans who actively support the outcomes our petition seeks, namely early identification and appropriate responses to child sexual abuse, are Zoe Daniel MP in federal parliament, and Rachel Payne MP in Victorian parliament. Catherine King's office (federal parliament) has indicated her support for our petition, but we're yet to have an opportunity to talk with her.
We met with Brad Rowswell, MP the victorian member of parliament who represents the Beaumaris area a couple of years ago, and he wasn't supportive of the outcomes our petition seeks. Even though it is calling for the piloting of recommendation 9.1 of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The only reason provided at the time, was Mr Rowswell didn't believe the economic benefits of integrated services and supports stacked up, although these have been proven in New Zealand and the UK. And we provided him with supporting evidence.
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Advocacy is defined as any action that speaks in favor of, recommends, argues for a cause, supports or defends, or pleads on behalf of others. We are grateful for your support of our petition, which is your act of advoacacy on behalf of victim/survivors of child sexual abuse.
We are grateful that retiring federal MP Stephen Jones this week revealed his history as child sexual abuse survivor in his valedictory speech. Telling the federal parliament one of the great achievements of his political career was helping former Prime Minister Julia Gillard establish a royal commission into child sex abuse.
However, the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexaul Abuse remains unfinished, whilst recommendations, such as 9.1 our petition calls to be pilotted in Bayside Melbourne and Ballarat, continue to be ignored.