NT authorities’ silence over alleged horror sex attack on two-year-old girl is deafening

THE silence of our taxpayer-funded departments for five days surrounding the suspected rape of an innocent two-year-old girl is unconscionable and completely unacceptable

Acting NT Chief Minister Nicole Manison and NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw address the media on Wednesday morning regarding the alleged assault. Picture: Justin Kennedy

THE silence of our taxpayer-funded departments for five days surrounding the suspected rape of an innocent two-year-old girl is unconscionable and completely unacceptable.

Let me present these simple facts.

The toddler was allegedly assaulted midnight on Friday when 10 police officers entered the house and found the severely injured girl.

The incomprehensible and unpalatable nature of how our authorities have dealt with this crime is laid bare when you look at the facts.

For four-and-a-half days the authorities, who are designed to protect and serve you, deemed it was not necessary to disclose to you, the public, that such a crime had taken place.

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It appears Police Media deemed this heinous crime was not worthy of informing their own commissioner, Reece Kershaw, until more than 48 hours after the attack.

For reasons unknown, Commissioner Kershaw then decided not to inform his minister, which ironically is Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who also holds the Police portfolio among his other duties, for another 24 hours and only after news of the story broke in the media on Tuesday afternoon.

Remember, the accused has a presumption of innocence. There have been no calls for potential witnesses, whose testimony may now be of lesser value as any statements taken will be almost a week after the fact.

No public search for accomplices. No call to the public about other suspects.

Commissioner Kershaw, who generally does a fantastic job in the most difficult circumstances, says he is happy with the way the incident was handled.

We can only hope Mr Gunner does not agree.

The Minister for Territory Families — the department which had numerous “substantiated” care concern notices with the girl and her family — was not aware of the incident until Tuesday, about four days after the attack.

Territory Families staff did not tell their chief executive Ken Davies until Monday — more than 48 hours after the attack.

He has not revealed how it came to be his minister Dale Wakefield was unaware of such a horrific incident until Tuesday.

His department also refuses to release the number of care reports raised specifically about the girl’s welfare. They will of course claim confidentiality.

In the almost four days between the attack and the time the story broke in the media we heard nothing from our leaders or authorities.

In the 24 hours since the media reported the story, we have had promises from the acting chief minister to do better, calls for an inquiry, a press conference from the police commissioner and a squadron of Territory Family staff have been sent to Tennant Creek.

The pub test suggests all this has happened because it has suddenly become a news story.

Frankly, this stinks.

Our departments now appear to act out of concern for their public image, rather than for the progression of child protection.

The clear message is that if not for the media breaking the story, the public would still be in the dark.

There would be no public accountability for Territory Families, their ministers and their department heads.

There would be no argument for better resourcing because as far as the public knows, Territory Families is doing fine as is.

We would all be in the dark.

Our leaders would dodge accountability, but clearly we would not learn from the incident in the slightest.

It raises the obvious question of how many times has this sort of crime happened before but nobody has heard about it.

Have we missed such previous opportunities to learn from such incidents, could this hideous crime have been prevented?

Such a suppression of knowledge would not happen anywhere else in Australia — except of course in the Territory’s remote communities where different rules apply.

The Labor Government was elected by a landslide on a platform promising to be open and transparent.

But it appears our departments and authorities still feel they have little compulsion themselves to be open and transparent to the public.

That culture is either dismantled or allowed to fester from the top — the government of the day.

Sleep uncomfortably fellow Territorians, for it appears not much has changed.

— KEN McGREGOR is the editor of the Sunday Territorian and the deputy editor of the NT News