Australia is failing some of the country’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged children and must give them a voice in how their lives could be improved, according to a report from the Australian Child Rights Taskforce.
The Children’s Report, containing findings from consultations with 527 children and young people in 30 remote, regional and urban locations across Australia, along with 190 recommendations, was presented by Unicef to the National Press Club on Thursday.
Tony Stuart, the chief executive of Unicef Australia, said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, children with disability, LGBTIQ children, asylum seeker and refugee children, children living in regional and remote areas and children in out-of-home care were being failed.
“This report clearly demonstrates the extent to which our country is letting many of our children down – particularly our most vulnerable and disadvantaged – by failing to recognise and accommodate their obvious expertise in the development of policies and programs intended to support and shape their lives,” Stuart said.
“With over 5 million children in Australia, we should be ensuring that the decisions we make, which impact on the lives of children and young people now and in the future, are made with them in mind and include processes for them to have their say as citizens and significant stakeholders.”
Children spoke of being unsafe due to violence, racism, abuse and intimidation. Other children reported feeling responsible for their siblings’ safety. One high school student in Wynyard, Tasmania, said: “Violence has just been a part of my life since I was born. I’m used to it. My first instinct is just to get my younger brothers out of the house, the main thing is to keep them safe.”
Over the past two decades, the number of children entering and remaining in out-of-home care has more than doubled. The Tasmanian, South Australian and Victorian governments have recently committed to extend the age that children leave out-of-home care from 18 to 21 years of age, but other states and territories are yet to follow.
“In the first year of leaving care, 35% of children and young people are homeless, only 35% complete year 12, 29% are unemployed, 46% of males are involved in the youth justice system, and 70% are dependent on Centrelink for some form of income support,” the report found.
A young woman who left the out-of-home-care system at 18 described how: “I didn’t know cooking, cleaning, nothing. I was an anorexic. I didn’t know how to chop a tomato. How am I supposed to be independent? You’re kicked out when you don’t know anything. All I knew how to do is make crack, man. Even to this day, I’m 21, and I don’t feel normal”.
More than a dozen inquiries held since 2015 have condemned Australia’s inadequate youth justice facilities, where children have been subject to practices that may amount to torture, cruel and inhuman treatment. Australia’s criminal justice system continues to imprison children as young as 10, and many of those children have complex histories of disadvantage and significant health issues, the report found.
Children also described their experiences of mental illness and suicide. One child in the ACT said: “My count of how many people I’ve lost to suicide is up to seven … They were aged around 15 and 16.” Suicide is the leading cause of death of children and young people in Australia. Rates are higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and LGBTI children and young people.
The report also described how one in six Australian children are living in poverty.
Australia remains one of the few developed countries that has not conducted a national prevalence study of child abuse and neglect. The Children’s Report reiterated findings from the child sexual abuse royal commission to compile this data.
The report made almost 200 recommendations, including calling on the government to fund a national, independent youth peak body to engage with children and young people directly and to represent their views.
“People sitting at their desks making decisions about our lives and they have never once, I’m assuming, set foot inside a residential care home or a foster care house, spent a week there every day for eight hours,” one child said. “Live it. I dare you.”
