Youth sexual abuse and child prostitution in Queensland's indigenous communities must be discussed publicly with the same openness applied to domestic violence, the state government says.
A report commissioned by the Bligh government and handed to the Newman administration in 2013 has only just been made public, revealing a "deeply shocking" prevalence of sexual abuse, violence and over-representation in West Cairns and Aurukun.
The document, compiled by Griffith University's Professor Stephen Smallbone, was kept secret at the request of authors until Saturday but the government insists it has not been standing idly by.
"The report itself demonstrates the seriousness of the issue, and it demonstrates this government's willingness to make the hard decisions to go out and tackle this head on," Treasurer and Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Curtis Pitt said in Cairns.
Among its most alarming revelations, the report found the rate of sexual offences in Aurukun was 6.6 times the Queensland average, with West Cairns 2.2 times greater, over a 12-year period.
One-quarter of the offences in West Cairns involved an offender who was under 18, while in Aurukun some offenders were as young as 10.
Researchers analysed police data and conducted interviews to uncover trends of violence, substance abuse, a "disturbing frequency" of rape and sexual assault, coercion, sexual teasing, prostitution and "nocturnal" youth behaviour.
"Compared to West Cairns, official records of sexual offences in Aurukun appear to represent an even smaller tip of an even larger iceberg," the report said.
Sexually transmitted infections were rife in both areas, but in Aurukun their prevalence was 56 times the Queensland rate, and seven per cent of cases involved youth under 16.
Mr Pitt said despite West Cairns and Aurukun being the subject of the research, they were not the only communities where such "deeply shocking" problems occurred.
He announced former Supreme Court judge Stanley Jones QC would head a steering committee to examine the problems and report back by the end of the year.
But Mr Pitt warned there was no simple solution to the complex issues that had already spanned a generation.
"It's very important to recognise that the victims of abuse quite often themselves have a high risk of becoming perpetrators," he said.
"That's a cycle that we need to break."
The report made various suggestions on how to address the issues, including school-based ethics programs, family-based interventions and cultural instruction.
Opposition spokesman Scott Emerson questioned whether the government had been "sitting on its hands" for 14 months since taking office.
He said the Liberal National Party (LNP) began preventative measures, including the toughest child protection laws in Australia, and defended the decision to keep the report private.
"When it was delivered there was very clearly a view to be very cautious about releasing this report because of the impacts on the communities and families," Mr Emerson said.
© AAP 2024
