Eight weeks ago a Northern Territory Board of Inquiry released the report “Little Children are Sacred” (download the report here) speaking of alcoholism, sexual abuse and as journalist from The Australian put it, “willed cultural suicide”. On Wednesday, the Federal Government announced it will take action where the NT government had failed to act, and will ban alcohol and pornography from NT aboriginal communities, succond police from other states (and the military if necessary), link welfare payments to school attendance and more.
Some Australians, including ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, have accused the Government of being “racist” and “paternalistic”. Others have questioned if this action would have taken place if this weren’t an election year, or in a non-indigenous community.
To these people I simply say – think of the children. It is so easy to sit on the sideline and criticize and too easy to be cynical. I am as suspicious of a politician’s motives as the next person, and I agree that this won’t be a magic bullet, that practical implementation will be difficult and the long term solution will be long term.
Yet what has been done in the past hasn’t worked, in fact, as Miranda Divine put it today, “the only effect has been to ensure the authorities are so terrified of being accused of “stealing” another generation they leave children in abusive homes.”
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Think of the children; what message do you send when you tell a whole generation “Look! Some of your parents did bad things, so we’re taking away their toys.” This is a great step for equality and justice.
And frankly, I can’t take any argument seriously when the only reasoning is a sound-bite. Think of the children indeed. It is racist, and it is paternalistic; it’s unjust and I don’t think there’s any way you can claim it isn’t. It seems no-one wants to try refute that, instead they throw around this clichéd appeal to emotion, “think of the children”, because they can’t come up with an actual argument.
Hi Bob,
I’m sure we can both agree that the welfare of children, of those most vulnerable, should be of primary concern.
I used the appeal “think of the children” because they are the ultimate loser if the current situation continues. Yet if alcohol is removed, if pornography is removed and if the law is adequately enforced, those most vulnerable in our community stand a greater chance of being treated as they deserve. Rather than being unjust, this approach seems to offer a great opportunity for justice for aboriginal children.
This is a phenomenally difficult situation for all involved. But something needs to be done, urgently.
My question to you is – if the approach being taken by the Government is wrong, how do we act to ensure that the injustices committed against aboriginal children in the NT are stopped soon as possible?
We have laws in place already that protect the children; the problem is enforcement in remote, isolated communities. What makes you think that you can control criminal behaviour by simply making more things criminal? And where in the report that all this is based on does it claim that banning pornography and alcohol is a viable solution? In fact, it specifically excludes pornography, it says “while pornography may play an important function for an offender in facilitating his offending [...] it does not directly cause offending” (pg. 209).
“how do we act to ensure that the injustices committed against aboriginal children in the NT are stopped soon as possible?”
See page 15 – “All information gathered leads us to conclude that education is the key to solving (or at least, ameliorating) the incidence of child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities”.
I’d also like to point out that the report spent pages 225-228 covering all drugs, not just alcohol – drugs which are already banned. Moreover, the report dealt mainly with *child* pornography – something *else* which is *already* banned.
The point is you’re advocating we ban adults from making adult decisions; and you’re justifying it with “Think of the Children!”. Just because we need to do something does not mean we need to do this, and no amount of emotional blackmail will turn “think of the children!” into an argument.
Bob I see you point. The problem is the lack of enforced laws and the solution is education.
We are trying to enforce a moral system on people that don’t want or appreciate it (page 51, 175). How do you go about educating someone something they do not want or trust? I guess it will take awhile. In the mean time before everyone has been assimilated into the “white fellas” society, what do we do? Do we leave the responsible parent still in charge of things? Do we limit children’s exposure to drugs and porn by banning it in the whole area (like what they tried to with opal fuel)? Arrest everyone who has broken these laws? All of the above?
That section that has the page 209 quote concludes that more study was needed: “Overall, it is likely that the impact of the viewing will depend, in part, on the age, maturity and other personal characteristics of the viewer…What is required is research to more fully investigate the impact of exposure to sexually explicit and/or offensive material, and the relationship between viewing pornography and offending.” (page 210)
If children are acting out scenes they see in porno’s then I think that shows that it does affected them (page 65). Sure there are already laws against it, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Do we just ban the substances all together infringing on adults choices so children will not be exposed to it? I concede that that same problem of lack of enforcement will still be there.
The report also inherently uses the “think of the children” argument, because children are important and need to be protected from things because they are young and need care:
“It seems hardly necessary that there be any formal statement acknowledging the obvious. However, there are such statements. The need for children to be protected against all forms of exploitation because of their vulnerability and immaturity first appeared in the 1924 League of Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, proclaims that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance. The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) further promotes the need to extend particular care to the child.” (page 4)
Page 4 also suggests that “reasonable (and perhaps some unreasonable) means should be found to combat sexual abuse”
It is a tricky problem. I guess the main question is why shouldn’t we infringe on adults behaviour to help children grow up in a safe environment?
Hack also talked about this report on the 15th
“I guess the main question is why shouldn’t we infringe on adults behaviour to help children grow up in a safe environment?”
We let these adults vote, we let them go to war, we let them go to jail for crimes they commit – they have all the responsibilities of adults, and can suffer all the consequences. Are you advocating separate sets of rights for people based on the community in which they live? Is that any different from an apartheid?
We shouldn’t infringe on adult’s rights in a general sense because we already have measures in place to infringe on their rights in a more specific sense – we send them to jail when they commit a crime. So send more police, send more aid workers, send teachers, send missionaries, send anyone who’ll go. Enforce the laws we have *first* before you start trying new rules which amount to not much more than legally-sanctioned racism.
“Enforce the laws we have *first* before you start trying new rules which amount to not much more than legally-sanctioned racism.“
I strongly agree with that. (Just to throw a spanner in the works, If banning alcohol and porn for adults is good for children then why not make the new rules nation wide and not just for a certain area that is populated by one race? Of cause that will never happen… Although different states and territories do have different laws on some things, but I am not really sure how that all works…)
I do agree that something should be done. I’m not sure education will be the solution to solve everything, as some people don’t want to learn, but i do think if the problem is that the crimes are not being enforced, then the solution is that that they should be enforced. Because the same lack of enforcement will still occur if all they do is ban more things.
Children are important, and do need to be looked after. I am no parent, but I am sure that any good parent will limit their adult freedoms and choices for their child.
Hopefully this report will raise a lot of pressure on the government to pump some more money into this problem.
An interesting interview with Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson on Lateline last night:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1962844.htm
I’ve also just read this post from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Miranda Divine:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-madness-of-the-critics/2007/06/27/1182623988896.html
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