Monday, May 05, 2003

PC ENDANGERS KIDS

“ABORIGINAL children were being returned to abusive homes by government departments paralysed by fear of being branded racist or creating another stolen generation, a leading advocate for Aboriginal children and women said yesterday. "Too many things happen to Aboriginal kids," Pamela Greer told a national conference on justice and children in Adelaide. "There are too many people who want to say, `We can't do things because we'll be seen as being racist'. Whole Aboriginal departments are paralysed by a fear of being racist. "Departments of community services don't want to create another stolen generation so we find a lot of Aboriginal children are left in a dangerous situation because some white or black worker doesn't want to be called racist. It happens all the time." Ms Greer, who has 10 years' experience training Aboriginal communities about violence against women and children, cited the case of Jackie Pascoe......”

The above is the beginning of a story available online to subscribers only. It appeared in The Weekend Australian of 03-05-03 on P. 8 under the heading "Fear of racist charge ‘puts children at risk’ “ and was written by Thea Williams.

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