SA: Governments overwhelmed by child sex scourge - Mullighan

AAP General News (Australia)
04-07-2008
SA: Governments overwhelmed by child sex scourge - Mullighan

By Liza Kappelle

ADELAIDE, April 7 AAP - Australian governments are being overwhelmed by the scourge
of child sex abuse, but Australians tend to see petrol prices as a bigger concern, a conference
has been told.

Ted Mullighan, a former judge who has exposed systematic child sexual abuse in South
Australia, told the National Family Law conference in Adelaide today that at least one
in every five children would be sexually abused before they turned 16.

"Government, I can tell you, is overwhelmed by this problem - in every state in Australia
and in every place overseas where it is taken seriously," Mr Mullighan said.

But surveys showed people misunderstood child sexual abuse and thought children exaggerated,
he said.

"And when asked to place in order the matters in society that concerned them most,
rising petrol prices came first and child sexual abuse came 14th out of 15.

"When it was explained, in the follow-up, child sexual abuse rose dramatically as a
matter of importance."

Mr Mullighan, who released his report on the Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry
last week, said child sexual abuse was not just a government problem.

"It is society's problem.

"In SA, there is a child abuse line, a phone-in, and there are 30,000 calls a year.

They are not all about sex abuse ... but you can see how almost impossible it is (to respond
to)."

Education at all levels was needed to make the nation safe for children, he said.

Mr Mullighan, who today described the plight of Aboriginal people as the nation's greatest
social issue, will complete his report on sexual abuse in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
(APY) Lands in SA's far north by the end of April.

The law conference is hearing from a range of people including UK barrister Nicholas
Mostyn QC, who led Sir Paul McCartney's legal team in his recent high-profile divorce
proceedings.

AAP lk/jl/nf

KEYWORD: MULLIGHAN

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