NT releases Tennant Creek 'action plan' after alleged rape of two-year old
The Northern Territory government has released a five point “action plan” to assist Tennant Creek after the alleged rape of a two-year-old girl and pleas from the community to help combat drugs, alcohol and violence.
The response includes the immediate deployment of additional welfare workers to assist families and trial after-hours services, as well as $1m to improve violence prevention services, $150,000 for a prevention program and $450,000 for youth activities.
The Territory Families department, headed by Ken Davies, has also pledged to work with community elders and “enhance” family and sexual violence reduction services.
“We know that our local domestic, family and sexual violence reduction services have been stretched to capacity for too long, responding to chronic domestic and family violence in the Barkly region,” it said.
The royal commission into the protection and detention of children found that of the more than 230 substantiated cases of child abuse in the three years to 2015-16, just five sexual abuse victims were taken into care.
It also heard that, in the 10 years after the federal government’s NT intervention, child protection cases doubled, further stressing an “unsustainable” system unable to deal with a child protection crisis of “epidemic proportions”.
The two-year-old child was hospitalised in Adelaide for injuries after a 24-year-old man allegedly sexually assaulted her at her Tennant Creek home.
The NT government was criticised by community members and family who said they had tried to raise concerns about the girl’s safety, but the department said that while more than 20 notifications were made about the young girl’s family, they did not relate to threats of sexual violence, and officers had been assisting the mother.
Tennant Creek community members and leaders suggested the NT government’s response to the assault was delayed and far too late after months of warnings about extraordinary rates of alcohol and drug abuse and violence.
The response includes the immediate deployment of additional welfare workers to assist families and trial after-hours services, as well as $1m to improve violence prevention services, $150,000 for a prevention program and $450,000 for youth activities.
The Territory Families department, headed by Ken Davies, has also pledged to work with community elders and “enhance” family and sexual violence reduction services.
“We know that our local domestic, family and sexual violence reduction services have been stretched to capacity for too long, responding to chronic domestic and family violence in the Barkly region,” it said.
The royal commission into the protection and detention of children found that of the more than 230 substantiated cases of child abuse in the three years to 2015-16, just five sexual abuse victims were taken into care.
It also heard that, in the 10 years after the federal government’s NT intervention, child protection cases doubled, further stressing an “unsustainable” system unable to deal with a child protection crisis of “epidemic proportions”.
The two-year-old child was hospitalised in Adelaide for injuries after a 24-year-old man allegedly sexually assaulted her at her Tennant Creek home.
The NT government was criticised by community members and family who said they had tried to raise concerns about the girl’s safety, but the department said that while more than 20 notifications were made about the young girl’s family, they did not relate to threats of sexual violence, and officers had been assisting the mother.
Tennant Creek community members and leaders suggested the NT government’s response to the assault was delayed and far too late after months of warnings about extraordinary rates of alcohol and drug abuse and violence.
Source: theguardian
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