Economic crisis spawns depression booklet

The national depression initiative, Beyond Blue has released a booklet to help Australians cope with the global economic crisis.

Beyond Blue chairman, Jeff Kennett says many families will find themselves in financial hardship over the next 18 months.

He says the booklet details strategies on how to cope with stress associated with financial loss and retrenchment.

"It's a booklet that helps to focus our attention through education on the things that we need to do if in fact we're in either of those two categories," he said.

"I think more importantly it's designed to educate us all about how to deal with change that might affect our lives and that of our families."

Related:

Economists sound recession warning
It is very predictable and the worst case could be something up to the level of the Great Depression which was 20 per cent unemployment and lasting up to a decade.

Financial crisis will hurt jobs, Swan warns
Job losses across Australia will be inevitable as the effects of the global financial crisis hit Australian businesses, Treasurer Wayne Swan says.

More families needing emergency support
The welfare group Anglicare says it is noticing a growing need among working families for emergency relief and housing support.

Freefall Friday: $84b - worst day in 21 years
Australian shares had their worst day since the crash of 1987, losing more than 8%, as mounting recession fears sent equity markets tumbling around the world.

States 'dreaming' over extra funding
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says he will not bow to pressure from states to provide billions of dollars in extra funding.

Economists predict unemployment rate rise
The unemployment rate has jumped from 4.1 per cent to 4.3 per cent.

Market plunges 5pc, dollar crashes
The Australian share market plunged 5 per cent today, as the dollar hit a new five-year low. Fear of a global recession has seized markets, with big falls across the major indices overnight.

Associate Professor Steven Keen.
Steven Keen has come increasingly to prominence over the past couple of years specialising in the economics of Australia's spiralling household debt burden.

$50b Aussie wipe-out
Australian stocks wiped more than $50 billion off the value of the market today after the US House of Representatives rejected a $US700 billion ($860 billion) plan to rescue the financial system.

Upwardly immobile: mortgage stress bites
Reserve Bank statistics do not begin to tell the real story of housing stress in Sydney's western suburbs, according to financial counsellor Mike Young.

Households give up three years of gains
AUSTRALIAN households have been hit so hard this year that their financial gains of the past three years have been wiped out, a Reserve Bank report has found.

Day care putting children at risk

Australia's early childhood services are among the worst in the developed world, according to a UNICEF report that warns of the risk of placing children in care before the age of one.

Among 25 developed countries Australia ranks third last, meeting only two of 10 benchmarks considered essential to protect children in their formative early years.

Only Sweden meets all the standards but Australia is one of only three countries, with Ireland and Canada, to meet less than three. Mexico, Slovenia, Portugal and Korea are all ranked well ahead of Australia.

The report, called The Child Care Transition, describes the mass movement to child care as a "high-stakes gamble" to the extent it is unplanned and unmonitored.

It proposes an internationally applicable set of 10 core minimum standards drawn up after worldwide consultations as a first attempt at comparing early childhood services.

Australia fails to meet standards on minimum staff-to-children ratios in pre-school education set at 1:15. It fails on a measure of having 80 per cent of all child-care staff trained. The Government also fails to spend 1 per cent of GDP on early childhood services.

We do not provide subsidised and accredited early education services for 80 per cent of four-year-olds; and unlike most of the other countries in the survey, we have no national child-care strategy that gives priority to disadvantaged children.

We do not provide near-universal outreach of essential child health services. Child poverty rates exceed 10 per cent. And Australia is one of a handful of countries that fails to provide parental leave of one year at 50 per cent of salary.

The only standards Australia meets are the provision of subsidised and regulated child care for 25 per cent of children under three. And 50 per cent of child-care staff have relevant qualifications.

The report, which draws on global and scientific studies, favours children being cared for at home for the first year of their life. It notes that when parents have choice, including financial support, they have tended to vote with their feet, with nursery care plummeting in Sweden after the introduction of 12 months' parental leave at 80 per cent of salary.

The report says that the mass movement of young children into child care is a revolution in how children are being brought up in developed countries.

At the same time a revolution has occurred in understanding the importance of experience in shaping the infant brain.

"Today's rising generation … is the first in which a majority are spending a large part of their early childhoods not in their own homes with their own families but in some form of child care," the report says.

Child-care staff were working incredibly hard but under appalling circumstances, said Associate Professor Margaret Sims, director of the Centre for Social Research at Edith Cowan University.

Dr Sims said inadequate care had led to a generation of maladjusted children. "We've seen increases in youth violence, drug and alcohol addiction, obesity."

Lynne Wannan, the past national convenor of the community-based children services sector, said Australia had allowed too much child care to go into private hands, and the private sector was a strong lobby against improved ratios and qualifications.

Quote: In addition day care is also for lazy parents and (especially lazy mothers, some with better things to do) who don't want to raise their children, even if the children's father can provide enough money for the children's mother to stay home and look after them. So in reality, unnecessary day care could be seen as neglect.

Bligh won't budge on smacking code

The Queensland Government says it will not change a controversial section of the criminal code that allows "reasonable force" to be used when disciplining children.

The State Government reviewed 200 cases in response to concerns that parents were using discipline as a defence for abusing their children.

Premier Anna Bligh says the review showed parents who use excessive force are being charged and penalised accordingly.

Quote:"Reasonable force" by picking up a young child and moving them out of danger is okay but reasonable force by assaulting them is not. Anyone who assaults another person is committing a crime. Governments should not make crimes legal. Hence child abuse.

Related:

Children needing protection 'has tripled'
The biggest increase in the number of notifications was in NSW. New research shows state governments have failed to put in place appropriate child protection measures despite a sharp rise in the number of children needing protection from violent and sexual abuse in the last 10 years.

Criminal Code legtimises violence against kids: MP
A Queensland state Labor MP says new statistics showing the extent of child physical abuse by parents support his case for a review of the criminal code.

Child removal rate similar to Stolen Generations
A Queensland Government report shows Aboriginal children are being removed from their families at a rate similar to the Stolen Generations of the 1920s.

Parents lack life skills, means, time: Stanley
ONE in five Australian parents are poor caregivers because they don't have the means or life skills, child health expert Professor Fiona Stanley says.

Mental illness more prevalent among youth
A new report on children's health shows that young people's mental health may not be improving, as was previously thought.

Taking the scalpel to DOCS
Overloaded on one front, the state's child protection agency fails all. When the body of a boy was found in a suitcase last year, and a girl was later found starved to death, the State Government could no longer ignore the calls for a major inquiry into the state's child protection system.

Formal sorry to child abuse victims
The Mullighan Inquiry recently exposed hundreds of cases of abuse, some dating back to the 1960s. Commissioner Ted Mullighan called it a foul undercurrent of abuse in SA institutions.

Principals agree: cut out social subjects
"The curriculum is far too crowded and we know from our research that not all schools can do what is being asked of them," she said. "The social responsibilities being placed on primary schools are ever increasing, taking time and resources away from our core business."

NZ passes anti-smacking law
New Zealand's anti-smacking Bill will become law within weeks after winning overwhelming support in Parliament.

End Physical Punishment of Children
EPOCH-USA seeks to end corporal punishment of children in all settings including homes through education and legal reform. The following links provide useful information about effects of corporal punishment of children and alternatives. Questions?

Police arrest a father over access dispute?

In a media report yesterday the ABC reported (see article below), that the police arrested a man over the abduction of children. But were these his children?

By the sounds of it making this man 'estranged' to these children in the eyes of the general public?

Well the ABC never cleared that up so we don't know.

So he was like this 'known man' who abducted them and nobody closer than a friend?

Then the police media stated that a six year-old boy and his two-year old sister were allegedly taken from their Fairfield home the day before by quote “a man who is known to them”. Un-quote.

So who was this man known to them? Their father?

But was the word father omitted out of the report? And why would a reporter omit that the person of interest may have been the father of the children?

Was that reported by the police PR media unit?

Was that special operation 'we don’t have a clue?’

What about special operation 'we don't believe in fathers'.

Would you believe special operation 'we only deal with criminals.'

They then reported that he kidnapped them? Not allegedly kidnapped them, but he did kidnap them. So he was guilty in their eyes.

But did he kidnap them? Well they were kids i'll grant them that.

Although it does sound more like he did not return the children say after an access visit? Or perhaps he, the [father], just wanted to be with his children? Perhaps, even say, an access visit gone wrong or even in direct contravention of a Family Court order? We don’t know.

Police then said, according to the media or police PR Quote: that the [man] allegedly threatened to harm them, ‘these [known] children. “

But does this cause unnecessary, alarm and affront and did he threaten these ‘known’ children?

If he were their father would he have been more likely to threaten his own children if a crisis situation had developed?

Police had earlier issued a rare amber alert during the search for the two young children.

Seems that this could have just been a dispute between parents of children?

So if the police arrested the man over a dispute why didn’t they report this alleged crime for what it may have been?

Why make an access dispute into a DANGEROUS situational crisis? Could that have gone wrong and caused this person to panic?

What is wrong with the label [father] if that is what the man was to his children?

What does changing that label do to the family in crisis?

Is this how people get shot and killed when police have no notion of family in their vocabulary?

And is a father a dirty word to the Police Force?

The reason I raise this article is that the breakdwon of families means that because a family is strong it can usually withstand intimidation by the authorities and therefore allot harder to breakdown. Once broken down into sepparate entitiies can easily be manipulated by the STATE.

I do understand that the Police want to criminalise people so that allegedly more attention is gained in order to arrest this person having others in the community think that this man is and could only be a danger to society but that's not true.

Because this notion can also go very wrong say if the person thinks that all he is, (in this case) is a criminal and did do something stupid like what happens in police pursuits . If that had occured and there was a death then would the police take the blame? I don't think so.

Personally I think it is fair for the word, father, brother, uncle etc to be included in the report if that is in fact what relationship the person was to those children and this would rather calm down the situational crisis much better. Man is more like a stranger and that's not fair to the family.

Related Article:

Police arrest man over child abduction

Police have arrested a man over the kidnapping of two children in Sydney.

A six-year-old boy and his two-year-old sister were allegedly
taken from their Fairfield home yesterday morning by a man who is known
to them.

Police said the man allegedly threatened to harm the children before driving off with them in a grey four-wheel drive.

A police spokesman says the man was found near his four-wheel drive in Campsie.
Police had earlier issued a rare amber alert during the search for the two young children.

Updated: 8:31am (AEST)

Dad charged after kidnapping man-hunt

Police say a man who allegedly abducted his two children in south-west Sydney yesterday did so on the same day an apprehended violence order (AVO) was taken out against him.

Officers allege the 37-year-old took his six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter from their Fairfield home about 8:00am (AEDT) on Saturday.

He was arrested about 7:50pm (AEDT) yesterday at Roselands, where police seized the car.

The father has been charged with eight counts of breaching an AVO.

The man spent the night in police custody and will face Fairfield Local Court today.

The children were safely returned to their mother yesterday.

-------------------------------

Quote: Oh! Dad better late than never. And when they say that the apprehended violence order (AV0) was issued on the same day. That is usually also Police, Media PR propaganda, and not necessarily before the act of child access.

Because police can make out the said AVO even before they speak to the defendant or accused person. Just more media tricks to break down this family and have the person appear more guilty.

Related:

Law council backs Family Court merger plan
The Law Council of Australia has backed recommendations to revamp family law by integrating the Family Court with the Family Law Division of the Federal Magistrates Court.

Greens to host childcare summit in SA

Childcare providers in South Australia will get to have their say about the future of the sector at meeting.

The Australian Greens will host the meeting on Wednesday prompted by the fall of ABC Learning, which has been placed in voluntary receivership.

On Tuesday, CFK Childcare Centres, the operator of 43 childcare centres in NSW, announced it had gone into voluntary administration due to a failed asset sell-off to ABC Learning Centres Ltd.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the Adelaide meeting was an opportunity to hear first-hand from the private and not-for-profit sector.

"This meeting in Adelaide is a first step in opening those lines of communication, creating a dialogue, and learning from those who are working on the ground as to how to stabilise and improve childcare provision in Australia," Senator Hanson-Young said.

Related:

Gillard flags childcare rethink
Ms Gillard has blamed the Howard Government for letting the private childcare industry run unchecked with no national standards.

Child care for people not profit! The future of childcare services in Australia has been brought into question by the financial collapse of ABC Learning, the largest childcare provider in the country. Its collapse, and government responses to it, reveal much about how public services and private profit interact in Australian society.

What does the Melamine- laced milk disaster have in common with the collapse of the childcare giant ABC Learning? The failure of commercial childcare and the disaster of the melamine toxic milk episode lead us to examine how 20th century capitalism has exploited women and their babies and children. Women’s dissatisfaction whilst caring at home has been amply described by Betty Freidan and others. Their factual reports of the unhappy lives of many a suburban mother and housewife contributed in some part to the mass co-option of discontented women into the workforce.

Paternity tests prove hundreds of men duped

MOTHERS are being forced to pay back as much as $60,000 to men they wrongly claimed fathered their children following a contentious reform of child support laws.

18 men, cleared by DNA testing, have made use of changes permitting them to claw back funds paid through the Child Support Agency.

More than 300 men have been cleared by DNA of being fathers. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show orders for $171,567 to be returned have so far been made against the mothers.

Angry women's groups said last night that it would be the children at the centre of the disputes who would suffer most if money were paid back.

[But why should a person pay for someone elses child? Just the thought of the blatant lie would be enought to turn men off.]

The money is being garnisheed from mothers' incomes by the Child Support Agency in the same way that payments are taken from the wages of non-custodial fathers.

In each case the duped men were able to prove beyond doubt in the courts they were not the fathers based on DNA paternity testing.

The new law, section 143 of the Child Support (Assessment) Act, requires the Family Court to consider issuing orders for repayment where paternity is successfully challenged and child support has been paid.

The law allowing such repayment debts to be collected by the Child Support Agency became effective on January 1 last year.

In the biggest case, Queensland man Ken Rodgers obtained orders for the repayment of $60,000 after making child support contributions over a decade to a woman who refused to even send him a photograph of his alleged child.

Quote: Women are like squirrels jumping from one nest to the other and it's about time they paid for the privilege. So don't hang your fanny over the back fence while your husband is at work. There is an easy way to fix the problem for those who can't afford the back payments. Stick with the person you expect to pay for the child or pay for it yourself.

Related:

Military lawyers await probe on DNA tampering
The Army's Criminal Investigation Command said nearly 500 forensic test results from all services dating back 10 years are under review after one of its examiners allegedly faked results. About 119 of those cases pertain to the Navy and Marine Corps.

Corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes
Others have raised concerns about corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes.

Expert baffled by Falconio evidence DNA contamination
NT: The director of the Northern Territory's forensic science unit has told a Darwin court he does not know how his DNA contaminated a key piece of evidence in the Peter Falconio murder trial. [lost trial? After all he wasn't found?]

The ABC for good or evil?
He had a suspect that he wanted to find guilty based on the chances of a spouse killing a spouse which were greater in anycase, at least more likely than that of a stranger.

First Grabs To Control Our DNA
A small company in Australia has been subjected to gross denials of rights after DNA database technology was stolen from it's company. This one year saga has spawned them to form a new approach to projects of importance to all people.

Worries over DNA and racial profiling
UK: Black men are four times more likely than White men to be on the national DNA database and there is growing concern about racial profiling in criminal investigations.

Lab's Errors Force Review of 150 Virginia DNA Cases
US: WASHINGTON, - A sharply critical independent audit found that Virginia's nationally recognized central crime laboratory had botched DNA tests in a leading capital murder case. The findings prompted Gov. Mark Warner to order a review of the lab's handling of testing in 150 other cases as well.

Witch-hunt targets scientists
QLD: SCIENTISTS at the John Tonge Centre are being threatened with jail in the wake of a government hunt for the source of leaks highlighting serious problems in the forensic laboratories.

Fresh swipe at DNA labs
Scientist Kris Bentley, whose departure yesterday follows that of forensic biologist Deanna Belzer after concerns about "inaccurate" DNA results and unvalidated equipment, issued a scathing resignation letter leaked to The Courier-Mail.

DNA leads 'CSI' cold-case squad to first arrest?
Frozen case? I don't really know what to say about them until they come up with their case. They say it involves DNA evidence but that's the only stuff we know.

Criminal's DNA filed under relative's name
The New South Wales Opposition is calling for an investigation into claims that police have entered DNA data for serious offenders under incorrect names.

DNA fingerprinting 'no longer foolproof'...
The genetic profiles held by police for criminal investigations are not sophisticated enough to prevent false identifications, according to the father of DNA fingerprinting.

THE BUTLER DIDN'T DO IT!
PROFESSOR BARRY BOETTCHER: Now, there should be a law enacted within Queensland so that when cases come up like this they can be brought to attention and if an appropriate authority such as a judge of your Supreme Court considers that it merits further inquiry, an inquiry be ordered.

'Rape' officer clears his name
UK: A former policeman has been cleared of rape after protesting his innocence for 15 years. Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that Brian Kelly, 47, had suffered a miscarriage of justice over crucial DNA evidence.

New unit investigates unsolved deaths?
A new police unit has been established to investigate more than 360 unsolved deaths in New South Wales, with many of the deaths dating back more than 30 years.

Prisoner's bid for review denied
Prisoner Roger Cheney has lost a Supreme Court action to have a judicial review of his 1993 convictions an 30-year jail sentence. Justice Shaw said he was concerned about the prisoner's claim that DNA evidence held by the police could prove his innocence. Although Cheney had requested the results of the DNA tests, he had been denied access to the forensic analysis.

QLD Prisoners DNA Bid THE curious case of Queensland's "cat lady" murder is set to test the state's legal authorities again, with the man convicted of the killing asking the Attorney-General to take the unprecedented step of releasing blood samples for DNA retesting.

Database clears up crimes?
NSW Police Minister John Watkins said at the launch of a Sydney conference of international forensic experts meeting to mark 100 years of fingerprinting in NSW. He said the collection of DNA from prisoners and suspects in NSW during the past two years had led to more than 5,400 matches on the forensic database.

A Question of Innocence
Katrina Bolton: The promise of DNA freeing the innocent as well as convicting the guilty has been repeated by politicians across Australia, usually while DNA laws are being expanded. The promise was made as a national DNA database, ‘Crimtrac’ was created, and it was made as NSW introduced legislation giving unprecedented powers to take DNA samples from prisoners, by force if necessary.

Mouse Trap Game? Tried Until Guilty!
Two New South Wales Labor MPs have strongly criticised the Carr Government's proposed abolition of the 800 year old double jeopardy rule, which stops people being tried a second time for the same crime. The left-wing MPs have branded the reforms as dishonest and unjust in a formal submission to the Attorney-General's department.

Weak Carr Government suspends Innocence Panel
It's a callous disregard for justice! The panel takes applications from convicted prisoners for DNA evidence to be analysed a move that may help in a future court appeal.

JUST BEAT IT! Govt lauds crime-solving technology?
The New South Wales Government says advances in crime solving technology are helping the progress of hundreds of police investigations.

DNA testing causes debate in murder case
The use of voluntary DNA testing in the investigation of a murder case in New South Wales has been applauded by victim support groups who are ill informed about the process said Justice Action's spokesperson Gregory Kable.

Abolition of double jeopardy law a political stunt: NSW Opp
Why draconian laws? What about the re-trial by media that goes along with it? Twice shy?

ARE YOU INNOCENT?
The NSW government has finally appointed somebody (Justice John Nader) to head up its Innocence Panel and has produced leaflets and forms for people convicted of serious crimes (eg murder) to apply for DNA testing if they believe it may help prove their innocence. You can get the info by phoning 1300 881 717 or writing to the panel at GPO Box 45 Sydney NSW 2001.

Is the Westminster System flawed?
Most people would say Lady Di got the boot and NSW has so much trouble getting the Innocence Panel moving. I said hey, what's going on!

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder Mass DNA testing of prisoners has led to the first NSW case of a person being charged with a previously unsolved murder as a result of a controversial gene-matching data bank. The Herald reported 25 Nov 02 "a DNA saliva swab led to the charging of a former prisoner with the bashing murder of a woman. Police had been unable to find any witnesses or suspects following the murder in Sydney's inner city two years ago. Detectives had admitted they faced a tough job finding the killer."

Prisoners can prove innocence for $20
Les Kennedy Daily Telegraph reported today that" Prisoners who believe that DNA will prove they were wrongly convicted will have the chance to prove their innocence for a mere $20 administration fee. The move comes 20 months after NSW inmates were asked to provide DNA for comparison with a databank of DNA from unsolved crime scenes for possible convictions.

DNA yours or mine?
Now they have isolated two genes that they say tells you if you're more likely to be depressed. What does that mean? It could mean that you should stay in jail because you are more likely than not to continue your offending behaviour according to a Department of Corrective Services Forensic Psychiatrist.

DNA = Do Not Assume - DNA Controversies!
The national DNA database of all known offenders proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair could mean that innocent people will be accused of crimes they did not commit.

DNA Evidence of Bipartisanship
Last week the U.S. Congress passed the Justice for All Act, which includes provisions of the Innocence Protection Act. As of this posting, the legislation has not yet been signed by President Bush. Attached is an analysis of the legislation prepared by the Justice Project.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder As long as the the prisoners DNA wasn't planted at the crime scene. It is one thing to force prisoners to hand over their DNA and another thing to exploit it.

Gillard flags childcare rethink

Government will look at childcare industry: Julia Gillard

Ms Gillard has blamed the Howard Government for letting the private childcare industry run unchecked with no national standards.

She said that it is vital for the Government to manage the system and it must respond to the failure of ABC Learning.

"We are in a difficult situation and we've ended up here because the former government took the caps off childcare places and then just let the market rip," she said.

"They had no plan for market design, they had no workforce plan, no quality plan - they just let it go with their eyes shut.

"We want to make sure we've got a child care system that is stable for the future.

"That doesn't mean that there won't be private providers. But how this market works, how it is managed, is a question for the Government."

ABC Learning, which provides care for over 100,000 children, was placed in voluntary administration yesterday.

A Government taskforce has been monitoring the child care provider since September.

The centres remain open for now but Ms Gillard has not yet confirmed if the Government will provide any bailout funds to keep them running or whether they will guarantee entitlements for its employees if the centres close.

There are around 16,000 staff employed in ABC Learning Centres in over 1,000 centres across the country.

The company was placed in voluntary administration yesterday and owes more than $1 billion.

Community operators keen to step into ABC void

The community childcare sector should take over the running of ABC Learning centres in the wake of the company's collapse, a community childcare advocate says.

The spectacular collapse of the childcare giant, which controls around 25 per cent of the market in Australia, has raised questions about how a private operator was allowed to build up such a stake.

Lynne Wannan, the immediate past convenor of the National Association of Community Based Children's Services, says it would be "foolish" to let the company return to its previous business model.

"It is extraordinary to imagine that they would ever have been able to see you could return shares to shareholders. So there was no other route for them than to end up like this," she said.

"To imagine that you are ever going to have millions and billions of dollars t2o return to shareholders and banks based on the revenue that you get from childcare is ludicrous."

She says the community-based sector is in a strong position to take over ABC Learning centres, with just a minimal increase in workload.

"It is not a complex task to manage children's centres and those community ones that have been operating for 30 to 40 years, they can do it. They manage. That is what they do on a day-to-day basis," she said.

If community operators are to step in, they will need the Government to use its capital to secure the buildings, Ms Wannan says.

Receivers McGrathNicol have taken control of ABC Learning and moved to assure parents that fees will not rise.

But Ms Wannan says it is inevitable costs will be trimmed.

"To try and generate the surplus that you need to repay shareholders, what you have to do is cut your costs considerably and it is unfortunate but ABC has had a very long record of all sorts of cost cutting," she said.

"You would hope that we would finally get the better ratios, the better qualifications of staff, improvements to all sorts of things including food and the rest of it that has really dogged ABC throughout its existence."

Gillard commits $22m to keep ABC Learning open

Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the Government will provide up to $22 million in funding to keep ABC Learning centres open until the end of the year.

Yesterday the childcare company was put into voluntary administration and has revealed it is $1 billion in debt.

Ms Gillard says preliminary data shows 40 per cent of the company's 1,040 centres are unprofitable.

"The $22 million represents the possible costs of supporting the continued operation of these centres for two months and will allow parents to have certainty that childcare will be provided as usual," she said.

"It is there to bridge the gap between the costs of operating the unprofitable centres and the amount that is raised through their operation."

However, the funding is conditional on further figures being provided by receivers about the unprofitability of some of the centres.

Ms Gillard says until December the receivers will work with the Government taskforce to conduct a review of the company's operations and the Government will also fund some of the receivers' costs.

The Government also expects to make a further announcement about the company's future by mid-December.

But Ms Gillard says it should not be assumed that centres will close on December 31.

"This period will be used to work through the arrangements beyond the 31st of December," she said.

"We will obviously be as transparent and upfront with people as we can ... and make sure they understand what the future of their centre is."

"Our priority has been and continues to be providing child care to mums and dads who need it."

Ms Gillard has reiterated to the company's workers that it is "business as usual" until the end of the year but entitlements are a matter for the receiver.

"On the question of accrued entitlements, obviously the ability of ABC Learning to meet those entitlements is first and foremost a question for the receiver and should be directed to him," she said.

More than 100,000 children attend the ABC Learning centres across the country, which also have over 10,000 employees.

More families needing emergency support

The welfare group Anglicare says it is noticing a growing need among working families for emergency relief and housing support.

The group, which has more than 400,000 welfare clients, released its annual State of the Family report at Parliament House in Canberra this morning.

Anglicare chairman Dr Ray Cleary says people are applying for its services just to make ends meet.

"Our agencies, day by day, work with disadvantaged people," he said.

"And in particular we have seen over the past few years a growing number of people who are in employment but are now feeling the stress of the current global economic scene."

Related:

Forty per cent Aussies saw income fall
Forty per cent of Australians say their income fell between 2001 and 2005, despite the former federal government claiming the period was a golden age.

Report warns new wave of homelessness
State and federal governments are being warned of a new wave of homelessness threatening disadvantaged families.

Children needing protection 'has tripled'

The biggest increase in the number of notifications was in NSW.

New research shows state governments have failed to put in place appropriate child protection measures despite a sharp rise in the number of children needing protection from violent and sexual abuse in the last 10 years.

A report from the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has found that since 1997, the number of children needing protection - mostly from violent and drug-addicted parents - [alcoholics?] - has more than tripled nationally to more than 300,000.

[Unless deemed a drug? Why was alcohol left of the above list? And woudn't they be mostly from violent drunks? Seen as how drugs are illegal?]

While this was based on both substantiated and 'unsubstantiated' child-protection notifications, the number of substantiated notifications also increased dramatically - almost doubling from 29,833 to 58,563.

The biggest increase in the number of notifications (substantiated and unsubstantiated) was in New South Wales, where the figure in 1995-96 was 28,930 and the corresponding figure in 2006-07 was 189,928.

One of the report author's, James McDougall, says little has been done to prevent children suffering at the hands of abusive and violent parents.

"There's been a hell of a lot of concerns around prosecutions and notifications, but in terms of good public policy development it's become fairly clear to us that what we've missed out on doing is that ensuring children are actually protected in that process," he said.

He says it shows a lack of appropriate early intervention polices.

The report also calls for more support programs for parents with drug or alcohol problems, as well as mental health assistance for children.

Related:

Child removal rate similar to Stolen Generations
A Queensland Government report shows Aboriginal children are being removed from their families at a rate similar to the Stolen Generations of the 1920s.

Parents lack life skills, means, time: Stanley
ONE in five Australian parents are poor caregivers because they don't have the means or life skills, child health expert Professor Fiona Stanley says.

Mental illness more prevalent among youth
A new report on children's health shows that young people's mental health may not be improving, as was previously thought.

Taking the scalpel to DOCS
Overloaded on one front, the state's child protection agency fails all. When the body of a boy was found in a suitcase last year, and a girl was later found starved to death, the State Government could no longer ignore the calls for a major inquiry into the state's child protection system.

Formal sorry to child abuse victims
The Mullighan Inquiry recently exposed hundreds of cases of abuse, some dating back to the 1960s. Commissioner Ted Mullighan called it a foul undercurrent of abuse in SA institutions.

Principals agree: cut out social subjects
"The curriculum is far too crowded and we know from our research that not all schools can do what is being asked of them," she said. "The social responsibilities being placed on primary schools are ever increasing, taking time and resources away from our core business."

Child removal rate similar to Stolen Generations

A Queensland Government report shows Aboriginal children are being removed from their families at a rate similar to the Stolen Generations of the 1920s.

The figures provided by the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Partnership reveal 669 children were in state care during the last financial year as compared to the 700 children forcibly removed from their parents last century.

Partnership director Donna Klein says the Government could face many future compensation cases from displaced Aboriginals.

"We currently have a system that's over-burdened, is unable to cope. There's an increasing number of children entering the system and only services for Aboriginal children and their families, it's always a crisis response," she said.

"A more targeted and focused response is required for our sector to assist those families to live on their responsibilities to their children, but currently our services are only involved at that statutory end."

But she says in some cases removal is necessary.

"What kids really want is a system that supports them and stops them being from being removed from their families," she said.

"A system where we can care, particularly when proper supports are available for families to care for their children in the home or within their own family groupings or within their own communities.... and we don't debate that any child who is at risk must be removed. I mean we support that wholeheartedly."

Related:

Indigenous rights complaint lodged with UN
The Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement (ALRM) has now sent a formal complaint to the United Nations about treatment of Indigenous people.

NT intervention failing to curb abuse
The head of one of Australia's peak Aboriginal child protection agencies says the federal intervention has failed to achieve one of its key goals.

NT intervention increasing murders
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) is blaming the federal intervention for an increase in the number of murder cases it is defending in the Northern Territory.

Black Australia's doing fine, says G-G
The Aboriginal leader Pat Dodson said the head of state's remarks were superficial and suggested that all that was needed was to "force these [remote] people out of their communal ways …

Forced to live in hunger
SUGAR, flour, milk powder and bread account for half the calories consumed by people in remote Aboriginal communities, a groundbreaking study reveals.

Indigenous incarceration under scrutiny
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up almost 25 per cent of Australia's prison population, on the most recent figures. This is nearly double the rate identified as a concern by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody more than two decades ago.

Indigenous population hits 500,000
Population mark: An ANU expert says the Indigenous population is back to 1788 levels. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics say Australia's Indigenous population has reached 500,000, or 2.5 per cent of the total population.

NT election turnout lowest in 20 yrs
The raw final figures from the Northern Territory election have revealed the lowest level of voter turnout in at least the past two decades.

Greens to amend Stolen Gen comp bill
The Australian Greens' spokeswoman for Indigenous issues says the party will be amending and re-introducing a Stolen Generations compensation bill to the Senate before the end of the year.

Aboriginal coalition gives Govt health petition
A coalition of human rights, health and Aboriginal groups has presented the Government with a set of targets it says are necessary to improve the life expectancy of Indigenous Australians.

Aborigines want end to NT intervention
Thousands of Aborigines are petitioning to have the Northern Territory intervention abandoned.

Constitutional recognition for Arnhem Land
An Indigenous leader has asked Mr Rudd to recognise the rights of the people of Arnhem Land and has also called for full control of the land and waters.

Govt moves to take native title claims out of the courts
Lengthy court battles over native title claims could be done away with if the Commonwealth, state and territory governments have their way.

New NT laws: 'more Aboriginal people jailed'
The Australian Council for Civil Liberties says more Aboriginal people will go to jail under proposed mandatory sentencing laws in the Northern Territory.

NAIDOC week to focus on Indigenous inequalities
A series of events to mark the contribution of Australia's Indigenous people will be held across the country this week.

Income management extended for NT
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has announced income management will be extended for up to a year in four Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Intervention delivering 'empty shipping containers, no houses'
A member of the Maningrida community in the Northern Territory's Arnhem Land says he cannot see any infrastructure changes as a result of the emergency intervention, and wants to know where the money has been spent.

Abandon NT intervention: Commissioner
The Northern Territory's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says the Federal intervention into remote Aboriginal communities should be abandoned and the legislation underpinning it should be repealed.

Stolen generation compensation ruled out
A FEDERAL parliamentary committee has recommended a "healing" fund be set up to help members of the stolen generations, but knocked back the suggestion of compensation payments.

Budget to roll out new welfare card
Welfare plan: The new card will be initially rolled out in NT Indigenous communities. The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) says the Rudd Government's proposed welfare debit card is not the best way to help struggling families.

Racism to blame' for Aboriginal health problems
The Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTAR) group says racism is directly to blame for many health problems in the Aboriginal community.

Police cannot cope with backlash
Chief Minister, Paul Henderson, has warned the Federal Government that many indigenous people displaced by the emergency intervention are creating unrest and straining police capacity.

2020 Indigenous youth delegate calls for national body
An Indigenous youth representative at this weekend's 2020 summit says a new national Aboriginal body should be created to avoid some of the add-hoc policies surrounding the federal intervention.

Call for new indigenous body
Former ATSIC Commissioner Klynton Wanganeen says he will raise the idea of a new national body to represent indigenous communities at the 2020 Summit.

Roxon signs off on Indigenous health pledges
Indigenous Australians will have access to the same health services as the rest of the population by 2018, under a Federal Government plan.

Discrimination Act should apply to intervention: Calma
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner wants the Racial Discrimination Act immediately reinstated in the Northern Territory's Indigenous communities.

Porn ban in Indigenous communities 'racist'
The Australian National Adult Retail Association (Eros) says the Federal Government's ban on X-rated pornography in Aboriginal communities is pointless, racist and should be revoked.

Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies
EMPLOYEES across the country will be at risk of entrapment by government "spies", retailers have warned, under a Federal Government proposal to control fraudulent use of a new welfare debit card.

Union urges PM to act on Stolen Generations promise
The Australian Education Union (AEU) wants the Federal Government to follow Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations with a significant funding boost for Indigenous education in the Northern Territory.

Union calls for $2.9b to fund education shortfall
The Education Union is calling on the Federal Government to provide an extra $2.9 billion in funding for public schools

Govt, union defend remote community schooling
The Centre for Independent Studies says Aboriginal students in the Northern Territory are finishing school with the numeracy and literacy skills of five-year-olds.

Aboriginal delegation heads to UN
The National Aboriginal Alliance is taking its concerns about the Northern Territory intervention to the United Nations

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead
Parents in four Cape York Indigenous communities could soon have their welfare payments quarantined if they do not take care of their children and homes and do not stay out of trouble with the law.

Union urges PM to act on Stolen Generations promise
The Australian Education Union (AEU) wants the Federal Government to follow Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology to the Stolen Generations with a significant funding boost for Indigenous education in the Northern Territory.

Aboriginal inmates '22pc and rising' of prison population
The Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health says new research is urgently needed to address the worsening rate of Indigenous incarceration.

School attendance and welfare: Amnesty

School attendance and welfare: another blow to human rights

Last week, the Australian Government introduced legislation linking school attendance with welfare payments. Under the new legislation, if children don’t go to school regularly, their principal carer could have their welfare payments stopped for up to three months. The 3-year trial will begin at the start of the ‘09 school year in six Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

The way that the policy is being implemented specifically targets Indigenous people without seeking to adequately address the underlying causes of Indigenous disadvantage.

Successive Australian Governments have failed to meet their international human rights obligations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and consequently, Aboriginal Australians are denied rights to the highest attainable standard of health, adequate housing, an adequate standard of living and freedom from discrimination. These failures contribute to Aboriginal children's lower levels of engagement with the education system and are not adequately acknowledged by the governments new policy.

As such, it's questionable whether the policy will actually work. This model has been tried before, notably in Cape York, in parts of WA and through the NT Intervention. The evidence shows that quarantining welfare will have little effect on whether children go to school.

An issues paper by the Australian Education Union shows that the programs that work combined sanctions with case management, supportive services and positive financial incentives. Even those programs showed limited success and this was attributed to the case management, not the welfare quarantining.

Not only that, but evaluations of the trials found that illness rather than truancy was the major cause of absence rather than truancy, and ACOSS cites other factors for absence, which include "a lack of basic education and support services in some areas, poor quality education programs, bullying, insecure housing and health problems affecting children and families."

The most appropriate policy response is one that protects all human rights. It must seek to repair the cumulative effects of the history of rights violations, poverty, exclusion and discrimination and emphasise the restoration a sense of empowerment and dignity not just in the punishment of truants but in the sense of community engendered by the school. Only then will children go to and stay in school.

Related:

No school, no cash 'hardline' benefits plan
Withholding welfare payments is unlikely to fix the causes of family dysfunction: Australian Council of Social Service. Families face losing their welfare for three months if their children continually skip school, under legislation to be introduced to Federal Parliament this week.

NT election turnout lowest in 20 yrs
The raw final figures from the Northern Territory election have revealed the lowest level of voter turnout in at least the past two decades.

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead
Parents in four Cape York Indigenous communities could soon have their welfare payments quarantined if they do not take care of their children and homes and do not stay out of trouble with the law.

Union calls for $2.9b to fund education shortfall
The Education Union is calling on the Federal Government to provide an extra $2.9 billion in funding for public schools.

Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies
EMPLOYEES across the country will be at risk of entrapment by government "spies", retailers have warned, under a Federal Government proposal to control fraudulent use of a new welfare debit card.

Abandon NT intervention: Commissioner
The Northern Territory's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says the Federal intervention into remote Aboriginal communities should be abandoned and the legislation underpinning it should be repealed.

Income management extended for NT
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has announced income management will be extended for up to a year in four Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Aborigines want end to NT intervention
Thousands of Aborigines are petitioning to have the Northern Territory intervention abandoned.

Primary school bans cartwheels, handstands

A North Queensland primary school has banned cartwheels and handstands in the playground.

Belgian Gardens State School in Townsville has banned all gymnastics activities during lunch breaks, declaring it dangerous because it has the potential to cause back and neck injuries.

Cali Buschgens, 10, has been reprimanded for cartwheeling on school grounds and her grandmother Val Bryce says the ban is a sad reflection on modern society.

"Sadly I think this is probably linked with the current society where litigation is rife and I feel that schools are probably trying to avoid a child being hurt and an irresponsible mother then trying to sue them for it," she said.

Education Queensland has defended the ban on unsupervised gymnastic activities.

Regional executive director Vicki Baylis says fear of litigation was never a factor in the decision and it was made purely for the students safety.

"The issue around the gymnastics is around the safety of the kids and it was not motivated by any concept of litigation, but certainly [by] that safety and well-being component of those kids when we're talking heads and necks and potentially backs if there were an injury."

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says she is surprised by the decision, and says the school is obviously taking student safety very seriously.

"I'd be interested to hear from this school what prompted them to take this action, because school communities by and large try to meet the standards that parents have in that community," she said.

No school, no cash 'hardline' benefits plan

Withholding welfare payments is unlikely to fix the causes of family dysfunction: Australian Council of Social Service.

Families face losing their welfare for three months if their children continually skip school, under legislation to be introduced to Federal Parliament this week.

Under the Federal Government's proposed scheme, regular school attendance will become a condition for receiving all welfare except the Family Tax Benefit.

If the legislation is passed a pilot scheme at eight schools will begin next year.

This morning Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that the Government made no apologies for the hardline approach.

Mr Rudd says his Government's priority is making sure that all children go to school.

"We think this conditionality - that if individual families are in receipt of income support payments the regular attendance at school by their kids is a necessary precondition - is the right way to go," he said.

"We need, in order to compete with the rest of the world, to boost our current school retention rate from 75 per cent to 90 per cent by 2020, [but] we have real problems of school non-attendance in Indigenous communities and also school non-attendance on the part of certain other kids as well.

"You've got to take a hardline approach."

But welfare authorities have criticised the plan.

Australian Council of Social Service president Lin Hatfield Dodds says there are various reasons why students do not go to school.

She says withholding welfare payments is unlikely to fix the causes of family dysfunction.

"[One issue] is chaos in families' lives," she said.

"Is there anybody around in the morning to help the child get to school?

"If there isn't, and if the family for whatever reason is in a high degree of chaos, then it's unlikely that turning off the income tap to a degree for 12 weeks is going to make any difference in that regard."

Ms Hatfield Dodds says there is no evidence that such a plan would help reduce truancy rates.

"As far as we're aware in the community sector there isn't really any evidence either in Australia or from overseas that involuntary income management actually works on any dimension," she said.

"It's difficult to see how it is going to address the causes of the crisis and chaos in family lives that result in this kind of experience for children."

She says the Government should instead make support programs available to more families.

"So if there's an issue with the parenting, let's wrap some parenting support programs around. If there's alcohol, other drugs, violence - if those things are an issue in the family's life in the adult's life - then let's try and go to the core of those issues.

"With all of these programs there is a strong evidence base for and we know they actually work we know they get results.

"The problem is out there in the community, particularly in areas that are locationally disadvantaged, is that those programs are simply not available to people."

Govt to trial welfare cut scheme in NT, WA

The Federal Government has Western Australia and the Northern Territory on board to trial its new program to cut welfare payments to the parents of children who do not go to school.

Parents in the trial areas who receive income support will be required to prove to Centrelink that their children are enrolled and schools will also be asked to provide attendance information.

The Greens have condemned the scheme.

Senator Rachel Siewert says the Greens do not support an approach which is punitive.

"It won't generate the outcomes they say it will," she said.

"What are they going to do about the children that aren't coming from low-income families or families on income support?

"This is about punishment, it's not about an education revolution that the Deputy Prime Minister is talking about."

Related:

NT election turnout lowest in 20 yrs
The raw final figures from the Northern Territory election have revealed the lowest level of voter turnout in at least the past two decades.

Indigenous welfare quarantine scheme gets go ahead
Parents in four Cape York Indigenous communities could soon have their welfare payments quarantined if they do not take care of their children and homes and do not stay out of trouble with the law.

Union calls for $2.9b to fund education shortfall
The Education Union is calling on the Federal Government to provide an extra $2.9 billion in funding for public schools.

Retailers' warning on welfare card shop spies
EMPLOYEES across the country will be at risk of entrapment by government "spies", retailers have warned, under a Federal Government proposal to control fraudulent use of a new welfare debit card.

Abandon NT intervention: Commissioner
The Northern Territory's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Tony Fitzgerald says the Federal intervention into remote Aboriginal communities should be abandoned and the legislation underpinning it should be repealed.

Income management extended for NT
Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has announced income management will be extended for up to a year in four Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Aborigines want end to NT intervention
Thousands of Aborigines are petitioning to have the Northern Territory intervention abandoned.

Boy housed at DOCS office 'last resort'

The New South Wales Department of Community Services (DOCS) has confirmed a violent nine-year-old boy spent four nights sleeping at its Wollongong office because of a lack of suitable accommodation.

DOCS says the boy was placed in its care just over a week ago because his mother could no longer manage his outbursts.

The department initially paid for him to stay in a motel, under the supervision of a caseworker, but he lashed out, damaging property, and the manager demanded he leave.

He was taken to DOCS' Wollongong office last Saturday where he spent four nights.

The executive director of Operational Support for DOCS, Helen Freeland, says the decision was a last resort.

"This is exceptional circumstances and it really was a decision taken only because there were no other placement options available at the time," she said.

"While we think this is very, very undesirable and exceptionally rare, it was the only option available to our caseworkers at the time."

Ms Freeland says the situation has since been resolved.

"The good news is that the boy is now safe with a foster carer, and DOCS is looking at strategies to make sure the situation doesn't happen again," she said.

Related:

Taking the scalpel to DOCS
"People assume because a child is in the child protection system he or she is getting help, but usually they don't get anything, and certainly not the intensive family support they need," says Jane Woodruff, chief executive of Burnside, a non-government child welfare agency.

Public schools allowing Christian sex ed

The Greens say the New South Wales Government needs to better control which groups have access to public school classrooms.

It has emerged that a Christian church-backed program is being taught as part of regular curriculum in some NSW schools.

The Choices of Life program, devised by the Presbyterian and Baptist churches, has been taught in human sexuality classes in at least three state primary schools and some high schools.

Greens MP John Kaye says the program pushes an anti-abortion and pro-abstinence message, and it is disturbing that it has been allowed into classrooms.

"It's indoctrination of students, it runs counter to the demands of the Education Act that public schools instruction be strictly non-sectarian and secular," he said.

"It also runs counter to the more than 80 per cent of Australians who oppose any restrictions on the rights of women to have abortion."

Mr Kayes says the anti-abortion, pro-abstinence message goes against the Education Act, which demands that public school instruction be secular.

"The Iemma Government has lost control of who gets access to public school class rooms," he said.

"Earlier this week, we had the Hillsong Church with its Shine program running in 20 public schools. Now we've got the Choice of Life organisation.

"There needs to be far better regulation to stop groups getting access to public school classes when they haven't been appropriately vetted."

The Department of Education and Training says it will review the use of the Choices of Life program.

Related:

Hillsong hits schools with beauty gospel
EVERY Tuesday afternoon during the first term at Matraville Sports High School, a group of young women take part in classes intended to boost their self-esteem. Some have personal problems, others have behavioural issues, while a few simply go because their friends do.

NSW in rights push for lesbian mums

The New South Wales Government wants a federal law amended so children of lesbian couples can seek child support if their parents separate.

State Attorney-General John Hatzistergos says co-mothers are not recognised in Family Court proceedings under the current laws.

Mr Hatzistergos says he will ask the Federal Government to change the Family Law Act to include lesbian parents at a meeting of attorneys-general this week.

"It's important that the laws be amended to ensure that these children are treated in the same way that children of heterosexual relationships are, so that in the event that the parents split up, there is an entitlement for that child to be able to seek child support from co-mothers," he said.

"It's important to recognise that these relationships exist and these children exist, whatever one might think about them.

"And bearing in mind those facts, it's logical to ensure that we have a civilised way of ensuring the economic security of these children."

The State Government last month expanded the rights of NSW children with lesbian parents, clearing the way for children from lesbian couples to inherit money from and receive workers' compensation on behalf of their non-birth parent.

The reforms allowed both mothers to appear on their child's birth certificate.

Proposed QLD adoption laws too little too late

The State Opposition says talk of changes to Queensland's adoption laws is too little too late for many families.

The Government has released a discussion paper on whether to give children and birth parents involved in adoptions before 1991 more access to information about each other.

The Opposition's Jann Stuckey says the Government has been reviewing the arrangements for years without acting.

"I have been told countless stories of heartache and misery by people who simply want to know who they are and some personal history," Ms Stuckey said.

"The contact can still be refused, but it's a matter of having a right to know who you are."

Queensland Child Safety Minister Margaret Keech says possible changes to adoption laws would still protect the privacy of parents who do not want to be contacted.

Ms Keech says the Government is considering adopting the model used in Western Australia, to protect the privacy of birth mothers who do not want contact with their children.

"When a person was given information, identifying information, they had to sign a legally enforceable undertaking that they would not contact that person because that person may not want to have their lives be intruded on," she said.

Linda Bryant from adoption support group Origins says changing the law would help the healing process for adopted children and mothers who were forced to give their babies up.

"If they can just find out where their child is and how it's grown up and everything, that will be a way for them to move on and for the adoptees it's even a bigger issue because they can now find out who they are, get a birth certificate," she said.

No adoption rights for same-sex couples: Bligh

State Cabinet yesterday approved several changes, including allowing de facto couples in long-term relationships to adopt.

The Government has also released a discussion paper on whether to give children and 'birth parents' involved in pre-1991 adoptions more access to information about each other.

Ms Bligh says only about 20 babies are now put up for adoption each year in Queensland.

"In an environment when you have such a small number of babies and such a large number of couples seeking to adopt, the onus is on the state to make a judgement about the best possible placement for a child and the prospect of that being anything other than couples as I have described, we think is very low," she said.

Government must do more to support families

Last year there were 60,000 cases across Australia where a child was at risk of abuse or neglect.

By Online parliamentary correspondent Publik

The Federal Families Minister Jenny Macklin must do more to support families instead of neglecting them because of the acute child abuse levels that are alarmingly high.

Today a Canberra woman has been accused of neglecting her four children and in the past week other parents in Queensland and Adelaide have been accused of allegedly neglecting their children.

Families Minister says last year there were 60,000 cases across Australia where a child was at risk of abuse or neglect.

So why doesn't she increase support for them instead of trying to criminalize them? It is not a criminal act to be poor.

Child abuse through lack of support is not a crime if governments are not prepared to support struggling families.

Ms Macklin says while parents have primary responsibility for the care of their children, all governments must make sure child abuse cases do not go unattended.

But one of the things that is our responsibility is to step in where governments show lack of support for struggling families and child support.

Jenny Macklin says the Government's child protection framework will aim to increase the sharing of information between jurisdictions and better integration of services.

But what about better social support for families? How could she miss the point?

Any aspect of a new national child protection framework should include more social support not a big stick to lock up struggling parents.

The Government is also giving state and territory child welfare authorities the power to advise Centrelink to withhold welfare payments. What a joke.

The Government needs to do much more to support familles so parents can afford to feed their children and to prevent children from neglect.

To be confronted with severe government neglect of families and their children resulting in the horror of malnutrition or starvation, is pretty confronting.

It seems incomprehensible that these things can happen in suburban cities in Australia today.

Formal sorry to child abuse victims

There will be a formal apology to child abuse victims by the South Australian Parliament.

Hundreds of people who were abused as children while in state care will get a formal apology from the South Australian Parliament today.

The Mullighan Inquiry recently exposed hundreds of cases of abuse, some dating back to the 1960s.

Commissioner Ted Mullighan called it a foul undercurrent of abuse in SA institutions.

South Australian Premier Mike Rann will move an apology to the victims in Parliament.

Ki Meekins, who gave evidence to the inquiry, says the apology will mean a great deal to him.

"My first thoughts are major, monumental task for the State Government to actually finally once and for all admit what's going on and actually apologise to the victims," he said.

"At least we've got the Government apologising. At least we've got them now admitting something that for years and years and years has been innuendo."

Mr Meekins says compensation payments capped at $50,000 can never make up for the years of harm.

Victims will attend a ceremony at Old Parliament House in Adelaide after the apology.

Related:

SA commits $190m to counter child abuse
Former Supreme Court justice Ted Mullighan released the results of his three-year inquiry into the abuse of children in state care on April 1, revealing abuse occurred in every type of care from the 1940s onward.

Child abuse compo must be fairer: lawyer
The recent Mullighan inquiry investigated cases of abuse among former state wards and made a range of recommendations to the SA Government.

Compensation for SA sex abuse victims
The South Australian Government says it will focus on compensation for victims, now that the inquiry into the sexual abuse of children in state care is complete.

Every 2nd family nuclear in NSW

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says the proportion of people living in a nuclear family has dropped to less than half of the New South Wales population.

The number of couples with dependant children has dropped to 48 per cent of 1.9 million families in NSW.

The statistical snapshot of NSW shows couples without children have risen to 37 per cent.

Lone person households are now more than a quarter of all homes. The ABS says that trend is partly fuelled by an ageing population.

Fourteen per cent of the general population are now over 65 years of age. In stark contrast, people over the age of 65 make up just 3 per cent of the Indigenous population.

The Bureau of Statistics says just under one in three Australians now live in NSW, even though the birth rate continues to decline.

Migration is the single biggest contributor to the state's population rising to 6.89 million.

But people in NSW have to pay the country's highest housing costs and the state's economic growth is slower than that of the national economy.

The state recorded a growth rate of 1.8 per cent between 2006 and 2007.

Unemployment has dropped substantially between 1988 and 2008, while household income has risen by 17 per cent in the last five years.