Paul Maley | May 28, 2009

ABORIGINAL children are being abused at a far greater rate than previously thought, a report on serious crime in indigenous communities is set to find.

The Australian Crime Commission said the report, due to be presented to its board in two weeks, would find there had been significant under-reporting of serious crime in communities around Australia.

Mr Lawler said child abuse - the central focus of the Howard government when it launched the emergency intervention in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory in 2007 - was one of the major categories of crime uncovered by the ACC.

However, The Australian understands violence and the abuse of power by leaders will be the major crime types identified in the report. This comes as discussions continue about a possible new indigenous body to replace the defunct ATSIC.

ACC chief executive John Lawler said the "inaccurate picture" sketched by the official crime data had obscured the true scale of the problem and undermined government attempts to fix it.

He said the ACC, which has strong powers that allow it to compel witnesses to answer questions and to conduct secret examinations, had produced a draft report on the patterns and severity of criminal behaviour in indigenous communities. Subsequent reports would provide regional snapshots of criminality in central Australia, the top end of the Northern Territory, Cape York and several areas in NSW.

Mr Lawler said he was not at liberty to discuss the finer details of the report, citing the highly secretive nature of the ACC's examinations process.

But in evidence to a Senate estimates committee, the ACC chief gave a preview of some of the report's key findings.

"What I can say around the findings is a broad statement which points to a large disparity between the true nature of child abuse and violence issues in some indigenous communities and what is officially known by government through the limited data currently available to it," Mr Lawler said.

"This inaccurate picture ultimately affects the efficacy of program responses to address child abuse and violence issues in indigenous communities."

Mr Lawler said there had been 652 "disseminations" - pieces of information forwarded to another agency concerning potential criminal activity - and more than 1200 intelligence reports uploaded to the ACC's criminal intelligence database as a result of the commission's work. Additionally, 13 intelligence assessments had been produced on "situations or persons of interest".

When quizzed by the committee about the 652 matters referred by the ACC, Mr Lawler described them as "matters of serious crime" in indigenous communities.

The ACC chief was asked if the level of child abuse uncovered by the agency was on a par with the prominent public reporting that had accompanied revelations of indigenous dysfunction. "There has been under-reporting," he replied. "There's a large disparity."

The ACC has 25 officers working on the taskforce with another three or four set to be assigned in the next few months.

Mr Lawler was unable to say if the problems confronting indigenous Australia had become better or worse since the intervention was launched.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25549260-601,00.html





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