Graham Mullane reveals some disturbing views and judgements on Child abuse cases.
He states in his article had to choose between a suicidal grandmother and two heroin addicted parents. The question is, Why wasn't the child referred to child protection?
He believes that money in education solves child abuse, yet many children whom suffer these circumstances go to school and little support is provided towards funding child protective services. This man belongs to the AFCC association that promotes a pedophiliac philosophy, "Parental Alienation Syndrome" and often uses the prejudice term, "Maternal Gatekeeping". A full Article about the links to corruption can be found here.
Judge says Hunter parents failing children
Former Family Court judge Graham Mullane said the Hunter Valley had greater social problems than the public, the Government and the media seemed willing to face.
Mr Mullane said the Hunter's education levels were "appalling" while many people before the court had "terrible parenting skills".
"Nothing prepared me for the poverty and troubles of the families in children's cases in the Newcastle registry of the Family Court," Mr Mullane said.
Mr Mullane, who retired in September, said he was moved to raise the issues after a report this week by former Supreme Court Judge James Wood.
The State Government had commissioned Mr Wood to investigate a spate of child deaths, including Dean Shillingsworth, whose body was found in a suitcase in Sydney, and a seven-year-old girl who starved to death in Hawks Nest.
Mr Mullane said he was not blaming the people involved but said many who came before his court could not cope with the responsibilities of adulthood.
He said a dysfunctional family or individual could cost society more than $1 million once the costs of various welfare, health, police and legal services were added up. He said society was spending its money "at the wrong end of the process".
He met US law academic Professor Jerome Skolnick in 1992 and agreed with the American's view that "paying kids to stay at school" was the best way that governments could spend money on law enforcement.
Mr Mullane said he was not the only judge to worry about the Hunter's social problems and said the region was well-known on the judicial circuit.
He quoted another Family Court judge who said on his retirement day that while his area had its "loonies", they were "a pale imitation of the genuine Newcastle litigant".
"There are cases where you think it has to be a stunt, that these are well-paid actors but they weren't, they are real," Mr Mullane said.
"I used to believe that lightning didn't strike in the same place twice but you would see the same thing over and over again.
"One or both parents with drug addictions. One child will have a disability, Down syndrome or Asperger's. One almost always has ADHD or some other behavioural problem.
"In the last month before I retired I had two kids born with methadone addictions.
"There's violence and drug-dealing, sexual abuse.
"My job has been to decide what's best for the children in these cases and too often there are no decent choices for the kids. I've had to choose the best of two or three really bad options."
He said that in one recent case placing a child with "a suicidal grandmother" was the best option he could give a child with a heroin-using mother and marijuana-smoking stepfather.
At the core of the problem was a belief by too many Hunter parents that education was of little importance when it came to finding work.
"Research shows that early school leavers suffer significantly more unemployment and significantly lower earnings when employed," Mr Mullane said.
"The connection between unemployment and poverty is obvious."
Mr Mullane said Windale and other low-earning areas in the Hunter had "entrenched and intergenerational patterns of disadvantage", as social work academic Professor Tony Vinson had highlighted in his recent reports on social inequality.
"But as far as the person in the street is concerned, they don't have a view that their community is deprived," Mr Mullane said.
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