A leading child care expert is calling on the Victorian government to tighten its screening of Working with Children permits after it was revealed that more than 300 have been revoked in the past five years.
Child abuse
Pat Anderson: intervention neither well-intentioned nor well-evidenced
Pat Anderson co-authored the Little Children are Sacred report for the NT government. The subsequent NT intervention ignored everything the report recommended, says Anderson.
The Brumby Dump: sentences for s-x with under-16s ‘inadequate’
Despite successfully recommending major changes to the law, the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council still believes sentences for the s-xual penetration of children under 16 are inadequate, writes Swinburne University student Mike Costello.
Come in Spinner: Come in Spinner: inside the prolific Vatican PR outfit
For an organisation that prides itself on its millennia-long view of the world, heaven and all things in between, the Vatican certainly spends a lot of time focused on day-to-day public relations.
Legal action, and internal strife, over ABC Archbishop reports
Controversy continues to swirl around the recent Media Watch story that wasn’t — a planned probe into two ABC Lateline “special investigations” that suggested the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson had covered up paedophile priests. Andrew Crook investigates.
Sinead O’Conner: How I was abused by the Catholic Church
In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Irish songstress Sinead O’Conner recounts the horror of her childhood years spent in one of the infamous church-run “Magdalene laundries”.
Why overweight kids are victims of child abuse
Being fat is one thing, says India Knight: feed your face as much as you want. But if you feed your kids so much, and so poorly, that they develop weight issues, expect them to be taken away from you.
Putting the safety of children first
Despite the media frenzy over Dennis Ferguson, there’s much to suggest that perhaps our society doesn’t give as much priority to protecting children as we like to think we do, says Andrew Bartlett.
No white balloons for the city of Wangaratta
Wangaratta has experienced a somewhat unique form of censorship with the banning of a campaign against child sex abuse, Braveheart’s annual White Balloon Day.
Abused children still forgotten
The Australian government needs to launch a Royal Commission into the systematic child abuse that occurred for years to children in institutional care, argue Joanna Penglase and Richard Hil.
Rudd the shock jock — whatever happened to Bonhoeffer?
If the concern were really about safety and sexual abuse, Ellis and Rudd and Brumby and rest of them would point out that most abuse actually takes place in ordinary suburban homes, writes Jeff Sparrow.
Barns: Forget Henson, a bigger menace plagues the playground
Every day of the week our political leaders allow children to be abused at schools right around Australia, because they sanction the sophisticated and relentless efforts of fast food and soft drink companies to market to children through the education system and sport, writes Greg Barns.
Teachers’ rights, a parable
Political correctness in the area of child protection has reached dizzying heights of absurdity in its desire to ensure that students are safe from sexual misconduct by teachers, writes Greg Barns.
You’re not going to do a cartoon about that are you?
No, I’m not doing it.
Monitoring p-rn: not government’s responsibility
When politicians equate p-rnography with terrorism and child abuse, you know they aren’t approaching the matter soberly. The “think of the children” mindset is a powerful drug, writes Chris Berg.
Not a single voice in support of intervention
During a three-day conference here on Indigenous health, the message has come loud and clear from doctors, lawyers, researchers, public servants, economists and Aboriginal leaders. Not a single voice has been raised in defence of the Federal Government’s plans for the NT.
COAG and Aborigines. They knew
When the Prime Minister, Premiers, the Chief Ministers of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory and the President of the Australian Local Government Association sat down in Canberra back on 13 April for “detailed discussions on significant areas of national interest” child abuse in indigenous communities was on the agenda but there was no hint of crisis.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Crikey Says – 22 June, 2007
Rudd does a Beazley.
