Moral anguish and systemic failure: Notes on state child care and protection in Australia

A recent, widely-publicised report based on a two year inquiry by the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Equal Opportunity Commission highlighted a range of serious shortcomings in the provision of care and protection for some of Australia’s most vulnerable children and young people. According to the report, Australia’s child protection system has failed in its basic duty of protecting children and young people from abuse and exploitation. The report confirms the argument presented in this paper that the abuse and neglect experienced by children and young people while under the care and protection of the state is systemic and widespread. While the media prefers to devote attention to ‘spectacular’ instances of departmental failure in regard to care and protection, the extent of the failures is far more routine than was initially apparent. One of the more vulnerable groups of young people ‘in care’ are state wards. Unfortunately the government’s record in respect to these young people indicates that many may be placed at greater risk in terms of their health, safety and general well-being after they have been taken into state ‘care’.