‘We have failed this child’: inquiry after toddler raped

The NT has ordered a review after a toddler was raped, with the Acting Chief Minister saying: “We have failed this child.”

Acting NT Chief Minister Nicole Manison with Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw in Darwin. Picture: Justin Kennedy.

The Northern Territory government has ordered a review of the case of an Aboriginal toddler raped in Tennant Creek last week after acknowledging child protection services were aware she was at risk but failed to adequately help her.

Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison today said: “We have failed this child. We need to do more.”

The girl, who was flown to Adelaide over the weekend, has since been released from hospital and is believed to be in the custody of the same family members who cared for her shortly before the incident, although authorities say they are confident she is safe.

The review will also examine the cases of all other children who have been the subject of child protection notifications. The government admitted receiving multiple warnings about the child and concluding she had suffered harm prior to Friday’s incident.

Those who knew the family have told The Australian they believed the child was at risk almost from birth, yet no evidence has yet emerged she was ever placed on a child protection order or taken into custody.

The revelations come on the heels of a royal commission that made damning findings into the Territory’s child protection and youth detention systems, to which the Gunner Labor government has yet to fully respond.

The government last week unveiled a $100 million “Turbocharging Tourism” stimulus package, including a renewed splurge on marketing, all the while complaining that it could not afford to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the NT without extra federal money.

Police today promised extra resources for Tennant Creek to tackle an upsurge in alcohol-fuelled violence. The move came months after warnings from community leaders about a mounting crisis and complaints from some Labor MPs about the closure of remote police stations.

Ms Manison said she and her leader, Michael Gunner, who is presently with a trade delegation in the United States, had only learned about the child rape, which happened on Friday, after journalists asked questions on Tuesday morning.

“We will look at this situation and what has happened in this particular case to understand why we have failed this child and what we must do to make sure we don’t fail any more children the same way,” she said.

“We are going to review this case thoroughly to understand the full details of it so we can learn what we need to put in place to protect more children.”

Mr Gunner tried to defend his government while speaking to Darwin local radio, saying “absolutely everything” possible was being done.

“There’s a significant amount we are doing. It was not good enough for the two-year-old girl last Friday, but police, everyone in government, are doing absolutely everything they can to keep the people of the Territory and Tennant Creek safe,” he said.

“There are some people in our community who make terrible, awful decisions.”

When in government from 2001—12, Labor’s mishandling of the child protection portfolio substantially triggered the Howard government’s Northern Territory Emergency Response.

Many key advisers to that administration have been reinstated by Mr Gunner and Ms Manison, who were themselves advisers to the Martin and Henderson governments.

Commissioner of Police Reece Kershaw said he had only learned about the Tennant Creek incident on Monday morning but argued subordinates had acted appropriately in not “briefing up” or publicising the incident.

“Just the volume of work that we have, it’s about what does get briefed up and what doesn’t … I’m satisfied with our response,” he said.

“We are really not allowed to publish anything that could lead to the premises and the identity of that victim. Where we’ve done it in the past, we’ve got ourselves in a bit of legal issues with some of the families who are not happy with that at all. Also, under the law, we have to respect the privacy of that victim.”

Mr Kershaw said about 150 sexual assaults on children occurred in the Territory every year. Police on Saturday arrested and charged a 24-year-old man in relation to the Tennant Creek incident.