Child neglect and the Little Children are Sacred report

Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle ‘Little Children are Sacred’: Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, which has come to be known as the ‘Little Children are Sacred’ Report, was released in late June 2007 (Wild &; Anderson 2007). The Report has received little analysis. Rather it is the response by the Commonwealth Government to the Report's findings that has dominated debate. Despite repeated accounts of child neglect provided to the inquiry, these accounts seemed to be viewed as the landscape in which child sexual abuse occurs, rather than a significant and urgent issue in their own right. The relegation of child neglect to background mirrors what research elsewhere tells us about what happens to child neglect referrals; lacking the sense of immediacy and danger of child sexual abuse, they are frequently minimised or overlooked.

This paper is an attempt to refocus attention on the Report itself through a lens of child neglect, and suggests that in limiting the terms of reference to child sexual abuse, the Report missed the opportunity to engage with the significant issue of child neglect and the practice of child protection work in cases of child neglect.