SA domestic violence royal commission hears shocking evidence about homelessness and sexual behaviour among children

A leading expert has warned of the damaging effects on children of the nation’s housing crisis - and proliferation of pornography - while giving evidence to a royal commission in Adelaide.

Children are being removed “from parents who love them” because they can’t find housing and are left to choose between staying in a violent home or living on the streets, a royal commission has heard.

Child protection expert Professor Leah Bromfield has described the “travesty” of mothers caught in abusive relationships who have no exit strategy because of the worsening shortage of affordable housing around the country.

Children are being removed “from parents who love them” because they can’t find housing.

Giving evidence to the South Australian royal commission into domestic, family and sexual violence on Tuesday she also warned about an alarming rise in harmful sexualised behaviour by children and the damaging influence of pornography.

Royal Commissioner Natasha Stott Despoja is hearing evidence from experts in a series of public hearings ahead of delivering a report and recommendations to government in July.

Professor Bromfield, who is the 2025 South Australian of the Year and the director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection, told the commission the “really significant housing and cost of living crisis” in Australia was leading to situations where children “are being removed from parents who love them because they don’t have a house and it’s not safe to raise a baby in a car”.

“We might have a mum who’s wanting to leave a violent partner but there’s no housing. She’s not protecting her child by staying … or by leaving and living in a car. That is a travesty for our system that it actually discourages help-seeking.”

Professor Leah Bromfield said about two thirds of families being referred to government-funded support services were currently being turned away because of funding shortfalls. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Prof Bromfield said about two thirds of families being referred to government-funded support services were currently being turned away because of funding shortfalls.

She argued that the removal of children into the state care system could be likened to the use of medicine that has “toxic side effects”, in that it should only be used with parents who “can’t or won’t” protect their kids because it has serious “knock on effects”.

During a wide-ranging hearing Prof Bromfield also told the commission that harmful sexualised behaviour between children was the “fastest growing” type of sexual abuse in the country.

She gave examples including preschoolers lying on top of each other to imitate intercourse, 12-year-olds choking their girlfriends while kissing and young people “asphyxiating while masturbating”.

Such behaviour is being driven by factors including easier access to pornography, violence in family homes and children “re-enacting” abuse they had suffered.

There is one full-time Women’s and Children’s Health Network staff member dedicated to working with children younger than 12 who are referred because of harmful sexualised behaviours.

Another two staff in the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service work with 10 to 18-year-olds.

For support phone 1800 RESPECT.

Originally published as SA domestic violence royal commission hears shocking evidence about homelessness and sexual behaviour among children