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Indigenous children
A National Indigenous Intelligence Task Force report found Indigenous children remained at greater risk of abuse than non-Indigenous children. Photograph: Marianna Massey/AAP
A National Indigenous Intelligence Task Force report found Indigenous children remained at greater risk of abuse than non-Indigenous children. Photograph: Marianna Massey/AAP

Child and domestic abuse in Indigenous communities 'chronically undisclosed'

This article is more than 9 years old

Australian Crime Commission investigation found that in some communities, every person had been affected by child sexual abuse

Child abuse and domestic violence in Indigenous communities “will remain chronically undisclosed and under-reported,” an Australian Crime Commission (ACC) investigation has found.

In some communities every person had reported being affected by child sexual abuse, either as a victim, perpetrator or relative.

The redacted report by the National Indigenous Intelligence Task Force (NIITF) said suicide and self-harm was a “critical issue” which affected Indigenous communities at “grossly disproportionate rates”.

It found remote communities were vulnerable to nepotism and exploitation by both community leaders and people with links to organised crime, targeting mining royalties and government funds meant for Indigenous programs.

The NIITF’s wide-ranging final report – obtained under freedom of information laws by the Age – is the result of an eight-year investigation of crime in Indigenous communities on behalf of the Australian Crime Commission (ACC).

The NIITF found Indigenous children remained at greater risk of abuse than non-Indigenous children. Neglect remained the most common form and was worse in remote communities, where it “appears to be tolerated at levels that would not be accepted in metropolitan and most regional areas”.

Sexual abuse of children was found to be “chronically undisclosed and under-reported”, and in some remote communities “traditional beliefs and values are sometimes invoked to justify and sanction sexual contact between adult men and underage girls”.

The taskforce found no evidence of organised child sexual abuse networks.

Young people committed “a significant portion” of sexual offences, resulting in trauma to both victims and perpetrators, and the taskforce discovered evidence of sexual favours and prostitution to obtain alcohol and drugs, including among underage boys and girls.

Violence in Indigenous communities was found be be extreme, normalised and often involving weapons.

Domestic violence was the most significant form affecting Indigenous communities, and “often ... continues for 20 to 30 years”.

It increasingly involved young couples and was “widely tolerated”, said the report, which also predicted “the extent and severity of intimate partner rape and sexual assault will almost certainly remain hidden”.

In the Northern Territory, Indigenous women make up approximately 73% of all domestic violence victims, and more than 80% of all incidents involve alcohol.

“Alcohol will continue to exacerbate the severity and frequency of violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities,” the NIITF report said.

There was a “tacit acceptance” of both violence and child abuse in some communities, and children were often actively discouraged by their own family from disclosing or reporting, “especially when it involves a local Indigenous offender”, the report said. Victims and their families were often subject to threatened or actual violence.

While mandatory reporting legislation had led to better awareness and reporting, many people did not fully understand or deliberately avoided reporting obligations.

The NIITF also noted “clear links” between the prevalence of suicide and self-harm, and domestic violence, relationship breakdowns, child abuse trauma and alcohol and substance abuse.

Between 2008 and 2012 rates of suicide were almost double those of the non-Indigenous population, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which also found alarming increases in self-harm instances.

“Threats of suicide are also reportedly increasing and becoming normalised, particularly among children. These behaviours are especially prominent in remote communities across northern Australia,” the NIITF report said.

Because Indigenous suicide and self-harm attempts were reported differently and “rarely involve the expected pattern of observable mental health issues”, they were difficult to predict and there was “often a very limited window of opportunity for intervention”, the report said.

All recommendations were redacted but the report noted service providers were “limited in their ability to proactively address mental health issues, identify children at risk, determine if a threat is real and to respond appropriately”.

The chief executive of the Barkly regional council, Edwina Marks, told Guardian Australia the area had “complex” issues, ranging from small to very serious, and which resulted in the Northern Territory intervention in 2007.

“The [issues] are generated in the main from poverty, poor socioeconomics and a lot of the issues that go along with that,” Marks said.

She said police and community alcohol strategies such as the temporary beat locations had contributed to reported drops in violent crime statistics.

“There’s no doubt about it from violent crime perspective, alcohol plays a major part. These are long-term generation issues we’ve only just started to make a dent in,” she said.

“At the end of the day this is the time government doesn’t walk away, this is the time government reinvests and ensures we’re still here for the long-term … so all the work we’ve done since 2007 isn’t wasted.”

A spokeswoman for the minister for Indigenous affairs, Nigel Scullion, said: “While the issues identified in the NIITF continue to be of concern, the improvements we are making to funding under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy will go some way towards better addressing those issues than in the past.

“We are also ensuring that the regional network [of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet] maintains close relationships with communities, local service providers and government coordinators so that it can be a key source of local intelligence to inform community safety policy.”

The NIITF also examined the exploitation of communities, and found financial crimes and exploitation of Indigenous organisations occured in every jurisdiction, including by executive officers of Indigenous corporations and individuals with links to organised crime groups.

It was likely to increase, and remote communities were particularly vulnerable due to limited law enforcement, real or perceived low risk of detection, and significant mining royalties and public funding to be targeted.

The 145 Indigenous communities and 58 regional towns visited in each state and territory were redacted, but the report said ACC investigators held more than 2,000 stakeholder meetings, 350 examinations and issued 476 notifications. It reported specifically on the Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land and Barkly region, the APY lands in South Australia, western NSW and Western Australia’s Kimberley region.

To encourage cooperation, the NIITF operated separately from police and child protection agencies, but was armed with the ACC’s coercive powers.

In the past weeks a series of child abuse and domestic violence cases have been reported in Alice Springs and remote communities. Earlier this month a seven-year-old girl was allegedly dragged away and raped at the Hidden Valley town camp.

A 33-year-old man was charged this month following the alleged aggravated assault of his partner on four occasions in Alice Springs and remote central Australian communities.

And on Friday police charged three youths aged 16 to 19 over allegations they had sex with the same 13-year-old girl over several months.

The report will add further fuel to controversies over the proposed closure of up to 150 communities in WAand wide funding cuts to Indigenous services under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy.

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