Women who endured horrific treatment in state care should be heard

It is a terrifying vision. A 15-year-old girl, who has decided to travel to Sydney with a friend, is reported missing by her concerned mother in Dubbo.

The result? The child is charged, held on remand, and subjected to invasive medical examinations to determine whether she had been sexually active – not to trigger a health or care response, but to determine whether her conduct warranted further charges – that traumatise her to this day.

Jenny Tuita’s recollections from her time at the Metropolitan Girls Shelter in inner Sydney’s Glebe, as told to Angus Thomson in today’s Sun-Herald, are chilling in their recency – Tuita was held at the facility in the 1970s.

Jenny Tuita, aged 15, the same age she was when charged as “uncontrollable”.

She believes she is among many girls, now women, who experienced this traumatic treatment in shelters that purported to protect them. The invasive practices she experienced happened not just at Glebe, but are, as Thomson reports, widely known to have occurred at other institutions including Windsor’s Wilson Youth Hospital and the notorious Parramatta Girls’ Home.

While the Department of Communities and Justice says it cannot comment on individual cases, Tuita’s lawyer alleges that past attempts to engage with the government have been met with the argument that the examinations were permitted by law at the time.

But it has been accepted, in the past, that people wronged by public institutions – particularly vulnerable people, such as children – should be compensated for what they endured.

These women are among many groups of Australians who bear scars from policing and social services policies of the past, grounded in racism, classism and sexism, presented as a community safety measure.

This week, the state government has shown it is willing to listen to the concerns of child welfare advocates regarding teenagers and even younger children living in state care, even if their concerns arose from what was – at the time – a legal practice.

The Herald reported in 2023 that more than 100 children in state care were being housed in “unaccredited emergency accommodation” – motels and caravan parks, staffed by shift worker carers – due to a lack of available foster homes.

A report on Alternative Care Arrangements (ACAs) by the Advocate for Children and Young People in August last year found these placements increased the risk of children absconding, breaching their bail conditions, and returning to jail. It called for the state government to invest in bail accommodation for underage offenders.

On Friday, Families and Communities Minister Kate Washington announced that, for the first time in 20 years, not a single child in NSW was living under these care arrangements after the state government implemented a ban.

The current state government has shown it knows just because something was lawful it does not mean it was right or in the best interests of a child.

The concerns of women formerly held at the Glebe girls’ shelter and institutions like it should be taken seriously.

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