We went away for a few days, and all hell seems to have broken loose. An ABC ( Australian Broadcasting Commission) came out on television with a damning report on child detention centres in Australia. Within hours of our Prime Minister, Mr Malcolm Turnbull, having watched the program, he announced a Royal Commission. It would be held about the juvenile detention centres in the Northern Territory of Australia. Have a look at this link. Yet, those allegation with videos were known for a number of years
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/turnbull-calls-for-royal-commission-into-don-dale/7660164
Within hours experts on breaches of human rights are now clamouring for a Royal Commission to be a federal Commission instead of just a State issue. Abuse of children seems to be widespread. Royal Commissions held about systemic abuse seems to go on forever like ‘Days of our Lives’ or ‘Neighbours.’
People hold Royal Commission in high regard but I am not so sure. Those commissions are nice little earners for the legal fraternities. I remember reading about Royal Commission back in the sixties in the mental health care and conditions of Callan Park, Sydney. As is common, recommendations were made, the lawyers got paid, but business as usual. It is just a kind of Tiger Balm or Cough Elixer to keep us quiet. I doubt that the mentally ill are treated any better today as when in the time when my brother was treated so terribly at Callan Park in the late fifties early sixties.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/timeline-of-voller’s-mistreatment-in-detention-centres/7661788
Never the less, I wish the Royal Commission would be extended to the treatment of our refugees at Manus and Nauru Islands detention centres. One can just imagine the horrors and desperations experienced when people burn themselves to death in order to get some attention. The dreadful rapes, abuse of children and the despair that those refugees will never be allowed to go anywhere except to Cambodia or back to the countries where they escaped from.
I am not sure if my father made a wise decision coming to Australia. I am ashamed.
Ps. My brother is in good care and still alive, but…in Holland.
Tags: Callan Prk, Cambodia, Children, detention, Malcolm Turnbull, Royal
Oosterman Treats Blog 
July 26, 2016 at 8:50 am |
Sad that your brother had to go to Holland for decent care. But not surprising.
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July 26, 2016 at 9:59 pm |
Yes, he was repatriated in about 1974. My parents also decided to go back to Holland to be with him. He has had excellent care ever since. We are also most fortunate that since my parents died some very good people visit him on a regular basis. He is now 77 and in reasonable health.
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July 27, 2016 at 7:37 am
Good to hear he is well cared for and visited.
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July 27, 2016 at 10:40 pm
And I like this part of your lovely poem;
‘This old woman
earns her living
spiking rubbish
on silent streets
at 3 am.’
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July 26, 2016 at 9:40 am |
Gerard, I refraining from giving a like button to this dreadful story.
One does not need a Royal Commission to investigate. The police could easily identify the perpetrators and lock them up and bring them before a court of law.
The Royal Commission should be held into how such behaviour in state institutions is possible. What Australian law allows such actions against humanity? Former Prime Minister John Howard said we don’t need a Bill of Rights because under our Common Law convention anyone can go to a court to address a wrong.
Can you see on of the boys is going to court and sue the NT Government? Me neither.
I’m afraid Australia, especially under the present government, is sliding further down to be a rogue nation.
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July 26, 2016 at 10:04 pm |
Those royal commissions are just a cover up. Finally, as you say, it is this government who are responsible for the care of its citizens, especially children.
The fact that the Commission only investigate The Northern Territory is proof they still want to allow mistreatment to go its merry way. I mean, the ill- treatment of refugees is enthusiastically approved and encouraged by the same people who are now huffing and puffing about the barbarity meted out to children.
Australia has become a dark place.
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July 26, 2016 at 12:19 pm |
We ashamed too.
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July 26, 2016 at 10:07 pm |
Dreadful, and Brandis on TV last night seemed to find excuses for what happened. He was the most ebullient when it came to initiating the cruelty inflicted on refugees at Manus and Nauru by permanently detaining them. How on earth is he now allowed to start-up the Royal Commission and dictate its terms of reference?
This Government should step down.
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July 28, 2016 at 2:20 pm |
Certainly a government with blood on its hands.
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July 29, 2016 at 1:19 am
Isis must stand back in awe when viewing those videos. I mean tear gassing, water torture, stripping 10 year olds, belting them?
Have the passports been taken away from those perpetrators? Are they being charged?
And Brandis? What about that stone-cold exterior?
I shiver.
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July 26, 2016 at 12:31 pm |
Graphic indeed. Raises the question about these youths of mad or bad? Either way, I can’t imagine such despicable treatment is going to help anyone. Sensory deprivation when someone is shackled in a chair? Three uniformed thugs to strip a ternage boy? Gah.
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July 26, 2016 at 10:19 pm |
My brother Frank suffered intolerable conditions when at Sydney’s Callan Park during the late 50′ till about 1974. When Frank needed re-straining, the favourite method by staff was to strip him and wrap him in a wet bedsheet. His schizophrenia was blamed on my mother not having been a good mother.
I wrote a book about it and hope to eventually publish it.
Of course, the Royal Commission into Callan Park achieved nothing then, as the Royal Commission won’t, today ( into the treatment of children in those horror camps at present.)
It is a matter for a change of culture and education, not of having ‘Commissions.’
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July 26, 2016 at 1:19 pm |
The Minister was quick to distance himself from the story with a ‘I know nothing’ response, yet also added that things have improved since the story was recorded.
There’s a pork pie in there somewhere. Meanwhile, he’s still the attorney General.
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July 26, 2016 at 10:21 pm |
Yes, the whole lot looked shifty and were distancing themselves from the story. That poor sister on TV of the boy who was at the hands of those thugs for years. Terrible. We are not in a good place right now.
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July 26, 2016 at 2:38 pm |
Terrible.!!! I visited your brother this afternoon. He indeed is in very good care.
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July 26, 2016 at 10:28 pm |
Yes, Will. You and your good wife show such love and compassion and for so many, many years. I know we haven’t visited Frank for some years and had own problems to cope with. However we were always at peace knowing how Frank would be getting your visits, especially after Frank’s mother died leaving him by himself. We were also heartened by staff writing to us and making inquiries about his past treatments here in Australia.
On our last visit to Frank, staff could not be more inclusive and informative about his care. It included a lunch with the doctors informing us of how they would care for Frank. The gap between care for the mentally ill there and what he received here could not have been starker.
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July 26, 2016 at 5:37 pm |
All too often, assigning something to a committee or commission is a way to avoid political heat and sometimes bury issues. Hopefully, that isn’t the case here, Gerard. –Curt
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July 26, 2016 at 10:33 pm |
You are right, Curt.
They call it white washing. A change of attitude is needed with a move away from punishment towards rehabilitation, care and improving. The training of staff and qualifications needs to be looked at. The whole idea of incarcerating only doesn’t work. We have high rates of detention, incarcerations and punishments. It is so wrong. Relying on punishment only results in reoffending. The figures are there to prove this.
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July 27, 2016 at 1:12 am
Tell me about it Gerard. Billions go into incarceration here that could go into education. Some very powerful statements about that last night at the Democratic national Convention. –Curt
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July 26, 2016 at 10:52 pm |
Staff get one day training in the care of children.Does it need anymore proof how ill equipped we are in Australia dealing with the most vulnerable?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-27/dylan-voller-strapped-chair-restraint-multiple-times-guard-says/7663332
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July 27, 2016 at 5:37 pm |
I read that when a child abuses their responsibilities the parent steps in and takes those responsibilities away from them. Time for the Federal government to step up here.
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July 27, 2016 at 10:43 pm |
I don’t understand jailing children. I thought this was unlawful. But then again, we keep in detention children of refugees. Behind barbed wire.
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July 28, 2016 at 1:06 am
And this was MORE than jailing them … breaking all the rules. Agreed that the treatment of refugees by our country is terrible.
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July 28, 2016 at 1:10 am
People can walk off the street and apply for a job in those child-detention centres. After one single day of training they can get the job. Can you believe this?
In most countries on par with Australia one would at least need a Uni degree in child care and are thoroughly vetted and trained.
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July 27, 2016 at 8:47 pm |
Fortunately New Zealand has no child detention centers – only a few short stay residential centers for intellectually disabled kids. Permanent residential centers are extremely expensive and owing to recent tax cuts, we simply don’t have the funds.
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July 27, 2016 at 10:50 pm |
New Zealand seems more progressive on many levels. It might not be perfect but Australia seems even further lost in this jungle of inhumanity to mankind.
The latest revelations about sexual abuse from priests of all religious persuasions, makes many of us take big detours around church buildings, especially cathedrals. With Sundays being very dangerous days. Many of us just stay in bed instead.
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July 27, 2016 at 9:41 pm |
Glad of an update on your brother. I have wondered about him. So glad he is in good hands.
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July 27, 2016 at 10:53 pm |
He is in good hands, Kayti. Thank you so much!
He still likes to smoke which he is not allowed to do inside. He needs to go outside which in winter makes it difficult.
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July 27, 2016 at 11:55 pm |
I firmly believe that the rhetoric, particularly around asylum seekers and also on being “tough on crime” has led to this situation. If you talk enough about people as if they are less than human, inevitably some people will think it okay to treat them that way. I too am ashamed of my country and I don’t have another one I can claim instead.
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July 28, 2016 at 11:24 pm |
Oh, the ‘tough on crime’ always finds great enthusiasm and resonates with many. It brings in the votes the same as ‘border control’ even though we don’t share borders with other countries.
The tricky bit is to nurture compassion and care for the vulnerable. That doesn’t come about by our governments forever going on about terrorism and installing fear for the ‘strange or different.’
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