Liana Buchanan: We can’t ignore kids’ stories of family violence
IT has been four years since Luke Batty was killed, and we now recognise the effects of family violence — but still struggle to see it from the children’s point of view, writes Liana Buchanan.
Opinion
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FOUR years ago this week, the nation was shocked and in grief when 11-year-old Luke Batty was killed by his father. Luke was not the first child to be killed through family violence but his murder stopped us in our tracks.
Luke’s death, and the immediate, powerful advocacy of his mother, Rosie, triggered an unprecedented and overdue focus on family violence in this state.
Four years on, Victoria has had Australia’s only royal commission into family violence. We have seen major investment from the state government and a move to reform policy, services and the law. Media reporting has changed and there’s a new community conversation and understanding about the scourge.
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Yet although it was the death of a child that prompted the changes, children have been largely absent from the community conversation.
In finally recognising the experiences and needs of those affected by family violence, we still, often, overlook children.
The report from the royal commission was clear. Children suffer significant short and long-term effects from family violence, whether they are directly targeted by the perpetrator or not. Family violence can interrupt children’s development, compromise their education, erode their physical and mental health and damage their identity and self-esteem. Many survivors carry the burden of childhood violence into adulthood.
The report contradicted myths about children as “witnesses” or “secondary victims” of family violence. It also refuted a long-held assumption that addressing the needs of a mother is, in itself, sufficient to address the risks to her children or support their recovery.
The royal commission recommended reforms that would see children recognised as victims in their own right, with access to properly funded specialist services that reflect their age, maturity, needs and circumstances.
It recommended improvements in how the service system prevents, detects and responds to family violence experienced by children and young people, in light of the significant and lifelong consequences that can flow from it.
As Commissioner for Children and Young People, I review the death of every child who dies after being involved with child protection. They often die in private. Media coverage of their deaths is fleeting; you’re unlikely to know their names. While many of these children die of illness or through accidents, some die as a direct result of family violence.
Many more die after years of living in family violence, often with other forms of trauma. The process of piecing together these children’s lives and examining the missed opportunities to help them can be devastating. In 2016, we tabled a report, Neither Seen Nor Heard, discussing the themes we see for children affected by family violence. We found relevant services grossly underestimated the risk of family violence or the impact of living in family violence on each child. Children were seldom engaged about what they felt or feared. Mothers were held to account for keeping their children safe, without being offered support, in situations where they were struggling to keep themselves safe.
Suspicions that children were victims of sexual abuse as well as family violence resulted in limited or no investigation or counselling.
Overall, we saw children and their families receive no meaningful intervention to interrupt the children’s experience of violence and trauma. In 2018, I continue to see these themes.
Many of the reforms currently in train should assist policies for child protection workers to better respond to family violence; the new support and safety hubs that will bring together family violence and child protection expertise; new investment in accommodation and support for families escaping violence. The state government is working to transform the way we respond to family violence.
But if we are to have genuine change for all victims, including children, we need to see children as individuals with separate needs who deserve well informed, co-ordinated responses from service providers.
We need to recognise that they have rights, including the right to be heard. We need to understand the profound damage we do when we minimise or overlook the impact of childhood violence or abuse.
We need to stop thinking only of adults when we describe victims of family violence. We need to provide transparency about what funding is dedicated to improve service responses to children affected by family violence. We need child protection to back up new policies with effective training. We need children’s and child protection services to work together with family violence services, providing an integrated response to women and children.
BATTY: LUKE’S DEATH MUST SPARK KIDS’ JUSTICE
It has taken decades to have women’s experiences of family violence recognised. As I think of Luke Batty and the other children whose lives have been cut short or harmed through family violence, I sincerely hope we do not take as long when it comes to children.
Liana Buchanan is Victoria’s Commissioner for Children and Young People
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