Monday, January 28, 2008

Starving kids raid kindy

Another day and another story of outback child abuse.

HUNGRY children as young as six broke into a Mount Isa pre-school looking for food at the weekend. Two six year olds were among 10 children aged 14 and younger caught by police for seven break-and-enters within a 48-hour period. Mount Isa Police Station's Sergeant Chris McLoughlin was stunned when he found two small children stuffing their faces with food from a pre-school refrigerator on Saturday night....

But this is the really disturbing part:

"When I first saw them I thought they were only four because they were so little and undernourished."But what shocked officers even more was the reaction they received when they dropped the children at home."When I was attending the children's homes they didn't seem concerned that their six-year-old kids were missing," he said."They didn't know how long they had been gone for, where they were, who they were with – it's just horrendous....

Now I don't know if these are another Aboriginal family or not, although considering the recent number of child abuse stories in Aboriginal communities I wouldn't be surprised, but that should be irrelevant. The justification for the existence of government is its ability to protect the rights of its citizens. If it can't protect vulnerable children from clear neglect it doesn't deserve to exist.

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