SYSTEMIC FAILURE
The brutal murder of twelve
year old Tiahleigh Palmer shocked our Nation. So did the torture and murder of
two year old Mason Lee. As did the cowardly murder of Tara Brown before that.
And the rape and murder of Jill Meagher before that. And the gutless murder of
Luke Batty before that. And all the other hundreds of victims of child abuse
and domestic violence that have made the news whose names we don’t remember.
And all the names of the victims we will never know.
Far too many victims have
their identities supressed to protect the rights of their abusers and
murderers. The little girl whose mother beat her to death with a metal vacuum
cleaner pipe - despite concerns being made to authorities long before - comes
to mind. But far too many are not even recorded in reports because they were
never allowed to speak of what they suffered. It is a list that goes on and on,
so-called isolated incidents that are just the tip of the brimstone.
I’ve written about this in
responses to Facebook news feeds many, many times and the number of ‘likes’
varies. One time there were around two-hundred-and-fifty, other times none. The
responses range from people who thank me for writing what they could not – some
sharing similar accounts and clearly suffering hardship as a result – to those
who abuse and insult me with claims I am a liar despite them having no evidence
to disprove what I have written.
A few weeks ago, one guy
told me Facebook was not the place to say such things and insisted it be
confined to a blog. His motives were apparent. He did not want me speaking of
such things in a place where there was high traffic, where people might read
it. His response spoke volumes of his nature but, sadly, he is not alone. I’ve
encountered many like him.
A guy posting under Charles Lowe and claiming to be a public servant once wrote
“You speak crap”, while another wrote “take off the tin foil hat, dude”, and
most of us are all too well aware of what John Laws said to an old man who had
been abused as a child and forced to remain silent. Those three idiots and
their ilk are just further evidence of a much larger problem.
Last year, National Children’s Commissioner Megan Mitchell released a report
and said that “too often children who live in violent
households are the silent, forgotten and invisible victims.” What she and
others failed to recognise was that this doesn’t change if those children
survive (or at least
continue living) to become adults.
I’d like to know what she intends to do about
those victims. Will she do something to allow them to speak, make sure they are
heard, and action taken to restore a little dignity with real justice, or will
she ignore us and become another cog in this ongoing problem? Given her
behaviours to date, it appears the latter – she is just another LNP stooge, a
bobble-head who appears to care but merely makes the right sounds to placate an
angry public.
Thousands of
kids and other victims are forced to suffer in silence, and too many die as a
result. Worse, if the ones that survive ever manage to overcome the fear and
PTSD try to get help, too often they are confronted by the entrenched culture
of corruption that allows this abuse to continue. Too often these
vulnerable, traumatised, broken victims encounter police or public servants who
do not hesitate to inflict indifference, apathy, incompetence, negligence,
idleness, insensitivity, mockery, insults, unfounded and defamatory
accusations, and intimidation. This is unacceptable. It is reprehensible. It is
shameful. And yet it has become standard practice.
When the verdict in the tragic (in every sense of the word) rape and murder of
Jill Meagher was handed down, Victims of Crime Commissioner Greg Davies said
“appalling, systemic failure” had allowed her murderer to remain free and asked
“how many chances does somebody get before we say… “you have absolutely
forfeited your right to walk among the rest of us? You will go to jail and die
in jail, no matter how long that takes.” What makes this worse is that the
authorities knew about the animal that violated Jill, and yet they still
allowed him to harm her and others.
The Terms of Reference for
the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse prevent
investigation of abuse (no matter how extreme) that doesn’t involve a sexual
component, and the police and public services are immune to any form of scrutiny.
This is a cover-up. That Royal Commission recommended the administration
of the Catholic Church cease the practice of ‘internal investigation’ because
it was a conflict of interest that was used to isolate and silence victims
while concealing and enabling predators, crime, systemic failure, and injustice.
The police and public
services have been using the same policy for decades, and the DDYDC incident
(and others) is just one of the few that has finally been exposed. People like
me know it all too well. Over the last thirty years, I’ve been trying to report
the extreme abuse and other crimes (including three suspicious deaths) myself
and several other victims suffered for decades at the hands of three abusers
(one of them was my father, a former police officer) and I’ve been forced
to remain silent. Nobody has ever bothered to look at the evidence, including
of police cover-up.
Last year, after suffering
through months of nasty attitudes from police working in SANOS, that provided
ample evidence of that entrenched culture of corruption, I was finally
permitted to submit a Timeline of Abuse. It was 58 pages. It was the first time
I’ve been allowed to present anything in the thirty years since I first tried
to report what was happening to me and my many siblings. You can find a sterilised copy of it in my blog post The Tip of the Brimstone.
It was passed on to two
officers who ‘assessed’ it over four months. Both had previously dismissed my
efforts to get help. One after a few, very brief emails, and the other after a
two minute phone call. According to them, it happened too long ago – despite
the abusers still being active – and did not involve any sexual components, so
was of no interest. They did not ask to see any of the evidence and barely let
me speak.
Both worked from the same
station where one of the abusers (my father) had been based. He and my mother
(one of the other abusers) were friends with a Chief Prosecutor there. The
third abuser (my mother’s second husband) was the son of a former Mayor of that
town, and a high-ranking member of the local Catholic Church. The official
response was that nobody doubted everything I had written was the truth, but
there would be no investigation. I was advised to let the matter go and, once
again, to remain silent.
Last year, just before
Christmas, I managed to track down a woman who is the mother of one of my many
half-siblings. He turns forty this year. We have never met. My father denied my
half-brother existed when I asked about his other children. My half-brother's
mother revealed what my father did to her and their son, and how the police
covered it all up. The police are not interested in reading that letter or
following up on what it revealed, only in making sure this matter is never
investigated.
My father, for the record,
has at least three children, all to separate mothers, with rumours of at least
three others, also to different mothers. All of those women were very young,
very naïve, and suffered the same fate. He never paid child support or bothered
to even send birthday cards, and his history of violence against young women
and children has never been recorded. Recent evidence also suggests there is a
very real possibility he interfered with at least three of his nieces.
The first of them married a
26 year old so-called Baptist Minister at the age of just 17, desperate to
escape her parent’s home. The second developed a drug habit at the age of 17
and now lives with her girlfriend, and has sworn to never have children. Their
sister also left home at 17 and rarely visits. The third cannot maintain a
relationship and has sworn to never marry or ever have children. All of them
were frequently visited by my father.
He is now married to his
latest female companion. They started dating when he was 45 and she was 19. I
was 25 at the time. She is younger than most of my father’s nieces and
children. They used IVF to produce a daughter and convince his parents to write
a new Will using the lawyers my father provided. Their daughter is 36 years my
junior. He was able to access IVF, bought a daughter with no apparent
background check, and convinced his parents to sign over their estates.
Apparently, children –
human life – is a commodity. That explains a lot. My father now runs a business
that has a name that is based on words meaning “to escape from family” (a
spiteful joke at the expense of his children and other victims). He uses that
business to provide parenting advice, claiming to be a devoted husband, father,
and Christian. It provides him access to young women and children. He has run
many scams over the years, some even Online. He’s a con-man. And he hides in
plain sight with no fear of exposure or deterrent.
The failure to allow a
victim to report a crime ensures that when the predators repeat their offences,
there is no ‘history of abuse’ or previous victims to interview for legal
action. Telling a victim that they should have documented a crime when they
were a child is idiotic, and even if the child were aware of the intricacies of
legalities, how many abusers allow their victims to document what is done, and
then admit they caused those injuries?
(similar part quote) http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3418996.htm
The ‘not enough evidence
for an investigation’ attitude demonstrates moral and ethical bankruptcy.
Attorney General George Brandis once said “how can we know what all the
evidence is without an investigation” and “we suspect a cover-up”. His comments
were self-serving at the time, but are very apt. The authorities need to afford
the same presumption of innocence to victims as the accused instead of assuming
victims are liars. They have a duty of care.
The ‘take no action’
response too often leads to the death of a victim, just like Mason Lee, Tara
Brown and far too many others that could have been prevented. Worse, it
actually adds to the problem as victims who reach adulthood develop all manner
of psychological problems from PTSD, depression, marital failures
and suicide, to assimilating and repeating what was done to them (as many
of my half-siblings have done) or homicide in an effort to protect others
or just make the nightmares end because nobody will help them.
The ‘take no chances’
approach that is being adopted in response to the murder of Mason Lee is a
step in the right direction, one too late, but one on a long path to getting
this right and changing community attitudes. But it does nothing to help those
the authorities have abandoned and forced to remain silent for decades.
The abuses in the Churches,
detention facilities, handicapped care, child care, and all the others remain
obscured by referring to them as ‘isolated incidents’, something governments
have worked to conceal for too long to avoid financial and personal
repercussions. All these Royal Commissions into separate abuses and systemic
failures, and yet there is still no Royal Commission into the entrenched
culture of corruption and systemic failures in the police and public services.
What makes this situation
particularly disturbing is that those in positions of authority to address
these issues are next to impossible to contact. Sure, if you can find contact
details you can send an email, but you rarely get a response, and when you do
it is bureaucratic rhetoric that fails to actually deal with your concerns or
provide real help. Indeed, sometimes you are even referred back to the very
source of that systemic failure with instructions to report the matter for
‘internal investigation’. You are instructed to ask those at fault to
investigate themselves.
The public, the victims,
need a means to cut through the unnavigable, self-perpetuating, cyclical
bureaucracy to make real help and a chance to be heard accessible for victims.
We know what the systemic failures are but nobody is listening to us. All we
get is folks insulated from reality telling us it’s all good, there is no
problem, and (if we actually find a way to contact them) to – effectively –
remain silent. The entire system appears to have been designed to isolate
and silence victims.
(similar part quote) http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-07/children's-commissioner-issues-domestic-violence-report/7005832
Legal Aid won’t help. They
have all their red tape that leaves too many of us in that grey area between
having too much income to qualify for assistance, and too little to afford
private help. Indeed, too much is considered to be two-thirds of the poverty
rate. Too much appears to be about $12,500 a year, after tax, and that’s before
the cost of bills, rent, food, etc is taken out.
Richard Head (not real
name, but more than apt), from Civil Liberties Australia, responded to my
initial request for help with what gave me hope. Unfortunately, his follow-up
response was one of the nastiest emails I have ever read. He claimed he could not
be bothered reading what I’d sent (six pages) but (despite this) went on to
blame me for all the systemic failure and stated that “the only thing all these
issues have in common is you.” Then he went on to insult me further.
That’s how you are treated
as a sixth-generation citizen. No wonder refugees are treated so badly! There
is no way a victim of these immoral, unethical behaviours can get help or even
get a simple apology. Legal outcomes should not be reduced to commodities that
the most disadvantaged in our community cannot access let alone afford. The
law, policies, and procedures should not be used to circumvent justice. And
yet, this is where we find ourselves.
The government is (clearly)
not interested in dealing with the problems while they can cover them up and
appear to be taking action. Look at me: thirty years after first reporting
twelve years of abuse and still no action. The abuse has continued, and
escalated, for the last thirty years, inflicted on other victims, while the
damage has led to psychological issues and generational abuse, and the police
and public services are still covering it up.
What I want to know, is
what our so-called political representatives and other authorities intend to do
about this? I have a 58 page Timeline of Abuse and several emails and letters
they might like to consider reading. Those provide just a glimpse into what me,
my many-half siblings, and my grandparents suffered at the hands of abusers
because the authorities refused to help. Hell, those authorities covered it up.
And to this day, none of those offered the chance to read any of this have ever
done so, including politicians who referred me back to those rotten agencies!
That Timeline of Abuse also
reveals how my siblings all suffer various personality problems, and while a
few of us suffer anxiety, depression and even darker emotional issues, several
others coped by simply assimilating the behaviour they suffered, and now they
inflict it on others. This cycle of abuse, this generational failure, could
have all been avoided if people in positions of authority had simply done their
jobs.
Our so-called political
representative are so insulated from reality by their wealth and status they
have no idea what occurs in the world where the vast majority of those they
claim to represent live. They need to be forced into action by the media, and
to do that the media needs to start reporting on not just ‘isolated incidents’,
but the bigger picture. It’s all the same problem. That entrenched culture of
corruption. They need to talk to all the victims. If we expose and purge the
problems in those agencies, then maybe abused kids can get the help they need
before it’s too late.
We need to show our
government how far this goes. We need the media to help us do this. Our
government needs to learn the lesson most of us know all too well from watching
all those little lights get snuffed out or hidden in darkness before they get
to shine - those who are silent may be said to condone, but those who force
others to remain silent are complicit.
Comments
Post a Comment