Jacinta Price hits back at Kate Worden’s Peter Dutton criticism
Senator Jacinta Price has hit back at criticism of Peter Dutton’s claims of Indigenous child sex abuse, saying it is ‘unfathomable’ people try to cover it up.
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Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price has hit back at criticism of Peter Dutton over the issue of Indigenous child sex abuse, saying it is “unfathomable” people would try to cover up the exploitation of Aboriginal children.
“Imagine if this was done to victims of the Catholic church, imagine that,” she told Sky News.
“What, is it OK for Aboriginal children to suffer in silence and to all be part of this cover up and to suggest that their lives aren’t as important as a sexual abuse victim of the Catholic Church.
“It’s unfathomable. That to me is what the real racism is.”
Mr Dutton was criticised by senior Labor politicians after he raised the issue of child sexual abuse during a visit to Alice Springs this week.
He said he had been told by police and social workers that abused children were being returned to the care of the people who had abused them.
Northern Territory Police and Families Minister Kate Worden accused Mr Dutton of committing a “dog act” by using the issue to launch his support for the ‘No’ campaign ahead of a referendum on an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament.
Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy said if Mr Dutton had evidence of child sex abuse he was required by law to report it to the police.
Senator Price said Mr Dutton deserved praise for raising an uncomfortable truth few politicians are willing to speak about.
“You only have to listen to individuals who have been speaking to Dutton over the last couple of days, they’ve been in tears, they’re like ‘thank God somebody in a leadership position is listening to us is prepared to fight on our behalf’, and all Labor can say on that is accuse us of politicising this issue, when in fact they are doing that, by suggesting that in the first place. That is all they’ve got,” she said.
“Whenever Labor say ‘who are these people you’re talking to, who are these Aboriginal people you’re talking to’, because the minute you mention anybody’s name, those people are going to be threatened, those people are now blacklisted from Labor that they now won’t get support from because what they’re concerned about is the next election cycle and getting back into power, not actually what’s going on on the ground.
“I can guarantee you I am fielding calls, I am having conversations with people who know what’s going on, there’s frontline workers who can’t talk about what’s going on,” she said.
In January, a doctor who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Sky News of the horrific incidents of child abuse being witnessed at Alice Springs Hospital.
“Drunken parents where one kid who was eight years old had to flag down an ambulance passing by because his mum was in no fit state to care for the baby, so he grabbed the baby, waved down an ambulance and the ambulance brought the mum, eight-year-old and baby into the hospital,” he said.
“We spent hours trying to get Territory Families and when they came they wanted to send them home.
“We’ve had a small baby raped. We’ve had just in the last very short time a lady who was so drunk she fell out of her cab onto her seven-year-old son’s leg and then started abusing the kid.
“And the smaller child who was with them – there were two kids – they were so scared. She was screaming at them and drunk – these are all drunk parents – the kids were so scared when they came into us they didn’t want to go home with mum.”
In 2021 the NT News reported that the Northern Territory had the highest rates of child abuse and neglect in the country.
It quoted figures from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare which showed 18.7 children per 1000 in the NT were found to be abused and neglected in 2019-20.
The figure was almost double every other state and territory.
Matt Cunningham is the Sky News Northern Australia Correspondent
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