Crikey

Beyond the continuing drama of  Belinda Neal’s Night of the Iguanas, one other story has hogged the talkback airwaves and tabloid pages this week:

The woman, 28, who moved from Geelong to Adelaide three months ago, was refused bail in the Elizabeth Magistrates Court. She was charged with five counts of criminal neglect, two of acting to endanger life and three of acting in a way likely to cause harm.

The alleged offences took place between February 1 and Monday, when police raided two houses in Adelaide and found up to 21 children living in filth and squalor.

You know the one we mean.

The facts behind the Adelaide yarn are astounding. According to workers in the area quoted today, there are about 310,000 notifications to child protection authorities each year which end in some 58,000 substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect across the country. Child protection workers are overwhelmed.

The timing of this revelation throws an interesting light on the figures that accompanied last week’s reporting of the NT Intervention’s first anniversary. After the completion of 7,433 of the intervention’s federally mandated checks on children in remote Territory communities, 39 were found to be at risk of serious neglect or abuse.

It looks as though the parenting in remote Aboriginal communities might have something going for it after all.