This item first appeared on the F.A.C.T website on 17th February 2005
A group of young people from the State’s foster care system has called on Families and Communities Minister Jay Weatherill to publicly apologise for ‘highly insulting, belittling and dumb’ comments he made about foster children in Parliament late last year.
Mr Ben Dunne, founder of a newly formed SA action group called Foster Proud, said Minister Weatherill’s description of foster children as ‘human wreckage’[1]on 8th December 2004 just added to negative views the community typically held about those in care.
Mr Dunne, a former state ward, resident of institutions and foster child himself, said “Foster Proud members believe the Minister’s offensive and unjustified comments undermine the great work that lobby groups for kids in care like the Create Foundation and the Youth Affairs Council have done in promoting a more positive and accurate image.”
“Foster Proud demands that the Minister makes a full apology about his comments and keeps his private views to himself in the future” he said. “Life during and after foster care is challenging enough without the Government writing us off as losers and tarnishing us all for life.”
Mr Weatherill made his comments when the Opposition raised concerns about a letter[2] from the Create Foundation concerning interviewing techniques used by the Department of Families and Communities’ new Special Investigation Unit which has been established to investigate around 300 child abuse complaints made against SA’s 800 foster carers each year[3].
Several young foster care graduates decided to form Foster Proud as an action group to publicise issues that are ‘making the State’s foster care system collapse’. Foster Proud has been modelled on the Irish foundation, Let Our Voices Emerge (L.O.V.E.) Within a month Foster Proud had over 60 members just through word of mouth and is quickly growing. Foster carers and biological parents were also getting involved to provide a joint voice, as well as members of the Aboriginal community.
“We will put the Government on notice for many issues the public should know about foster care in SA. We want everyone to know that most of us have found foster care to be a positive experience and that we have not all been abused in care like the Government and its Investigations Unit seem to think.”
Foster Proud was not government funded and would not be stopped by fear of funding loss in bringing government negligence in many areas of foster care to the public’s attention.
“We won’t stand by and let bad things continue. We want to bring about real improvements rather than the usual government broken promises. Otherwise foster care will be gone and kids will end up in big institutions again”.
“Well intended Government action to the current abuse in care hysteria has made things much worse for many children and young people in foster care. Our chances for a normal life in a family are vanishing. The State Government is inviting former wards to give unchallenged claims of abuse to the Mullighan Inquiry, saying compensation will be available. Many foster carers are resigning or going ‘on hold’ because they are scared of having false allegations made against them. Those who are left are harassed by paranoid social workers and have become paranoid themselves. The kids miss out because of unrealistic rules and a lack of trust because of the high number of allegations being made and government investigators believing them no matter what”.
“It’s a joke that they seem to believe anything we say about abuse but won’t believe a thing we say if we are accused of a crime, even as adults. We’ve also had reports where DFC investigators have yelled at kids and have forced some to sign statements after really long interviews [4]. They’re even interviewing those who have left the State’s care over 10 years ago and are showing up at people’s houses unannounced, using our old private files. Apparently they have also offered compensation to get allegations. It just doesn’t sound right to us. They should just be seeking the truth”.
“Police should handle any real abuse cases. It is intensely insulting and painful for those of us genuinely abused as children to see others use that genuine pain for malicious and financial reasons”.
There are recent cases where kids have lost their long term placements because someone else living elsewhere makes allegations. The children removed may have been in their placement for years. We’ve also heard of a case where a girl in care confessed to making false allegations and wanted the charges against the carer dropped. She had done it a few times before. This time her social worker and the SA police wouldn’t believe her and proceeded with taking the carer to trial. That girl suicided when the trial started. How sad is that? It’s good the Coroner is investigating”.
Membership of Foster Proud is free and open to those who are or have been in foster care or government residential care. Registered carers and residential care workers can also join. Donations can be accepted once we have a bank account. Contact Ben Dunne on 0439 863 392 (after 5pm).
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References:
1 Hansard: 8 December 2004
2 Create Foundation letter dated 16 July 2004 to Special Investigation Unit manager Steve Edgington
3 See ‘Proposal for the Establishment of a Special Investigation Unit’, Department of Human Services (now DFC), February 2003, and also minutes of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Alternative Care dated 14 July 2004.
4 See Hansard 8 December 2004 and Create Foundation letter dated 16 July 2004 to Steve Edgington, DFC Special Investigation Unit