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NEW South Wales' complaints watchdog made a passionate plea for society to take better care of children after a damning report into child deaths yesterday. Ombudsman Bruce Barbour said: "Surely a civilised society must be able to embrace the concept that one of the most important things that it should hold in regard is the care and welfare of its children. "It's inappropriate for children to continue to die in the community as a consequence of abuse or neglect." His appeal follows Police Commissioner Ken Moroney scathing attack weeks ago on how society had encouraged males to lose "fundamental respect" for women. Mr Barbour said the majority of the children who died were in the care of at least one biological parent, with the number of reported cases of abuse on the rise. While DOCS had failed many of the children through poor decision-making and failing to assess risks, Mr Barbour said society, too, was to blame for the deaths. "Recently [Mr Moroney] spoke about the need for respect of women in the community and that violence against women is unacceptable in our society,'' he said. "I would suggest there is also much work we need to do to ensure our children are safe and secure. "Until we accept, our responsibility as a community to properly care and protect our children, the tragic circumstances documented in this report will continue." Community Services Minister Carmel Tebbutt said improvements had already been made within DOCS - including an internal review unit to ensure all cases were investigated correctly. But South Coast MP Shelley Hancock, who had been critical of DOCS' handling of the case of Alexandra De Vaney, 15, who committed suicide last month, said yesterday that "shuffling paperwork" wasn't going to help. "The Government needs to put more resources into DOCs so they don't have to prioritise who's more important. We shouldn't be asked to prioritise between a baby and a 15-year-old girl, they're both just as important," she said. Mr Barbour also criticised society's treatment of the disabled after finding those in residential care did not always get proper care. "The people who died represent a high vulnerable group in our community and we need to learn from their deaths," he said. Daily Telegraph (10-12-2004) Lillian Saleh |
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