Leaders say abuse inquiry should omit communities

THE co-author of the Little Children Are Sacred report has warned the government about the royal commission into child abuse.

THE co-author of the Little Children Are Sacred report has warned the Gillard government that the royal commission into child sexual abuse should not "re-do" previous inquiries into indigenous communities.

Rex Wild QC, whose report with Pat Anderson on child sexual abuse in Northern Territory indigenous communities sparked the 2007 federal intervention, welcomed plans to establish a royal commission but said many state-based inquiries already had examined indigenous abuse.

Mr Wild yesterday said there was scope to follow up on his own inquiry, which found abuse was rampant in indigenous communities, by examining the responses to abuse by institutions.

"I don't think there would be a separate heading of indigenous sexual abuse. I think that's been done to death," Mr Wild, who also served as counsel assisting the Costigan royal commission into the Painters and Dockers Union in the 1980s, told The Australian.

"I wouldn't have thought they need to re-do what we did. But on the other hand, if there are institutional aspects that they need to double up on, then so be it."

He was joined by indigenous leaders from across the country who said the royal commission was examining the fate of all Australians in institutions and there was no need to widen it to include Aboriginal communities.

Asked if the royal commission would include Aboriginal communities, acting Families Minister Brendan O'Connor told ABC TV it would look at children in state care and religious organisations and "there's no reason of course that wouldn't involve indigenous children".

West Australian Aboriginal health advocate Ted Wilkes instead called for Little Children Are Sacred-style inquiries to be held separately in states, in parallel with the royal commission, to highlight abuse in Aboriginal communities. South Australian Aboriginal leader and former Australian of the Year Lowitja O'Donoghue said: "I was really surprised when (the government) made a particular reference to Aboriginal sexual abuse, because it should go without saying."

Aboriginal lawyer Hannah McGlade said there had been a decade of government inquiries into Aboriginal child sexual abuse and there was no need to broaden the royal commission to include indigenous communities

"It would be neverending if it included communities," she said.

But Associate Professor Wilkes, who has long fought against abuse in Aboriginal communities and headed an Aboriginal health clinic in Perth for 16 years, said the fate of Aboriginal children did need to be looked at separately. "The trauma and poverty of Aboriginal Australians demands we treat them separately to make sure we do a thorough investigation and so we don't get overwhelmed in the mainstream inquiry," he said.

The 2002 inquiry by magistrate Sue Gordon into family violence and child abuse in West Australian Aboriginal communities led to the closure of the Swan Valley Nyoongar camp, where a 15-year-old girl who had been abused was found hanged in 2001.