SBS Online | Long Read | 22.03.18
Exclusive investigation by me for SBS Online.
“How can a child neglect itself?” says Aunty Vickie Roach (pictured, right) as she flicks through a stack of court papers on the front step of her home near Wollongong, New South Wales. “And in what alternative universe can that child be criminalized? It’s crazy”.
In 2017 I broke the story that thousands of innocent children and babies in the Australian state of Victoria were given criminal records simply for being taken into state care.
As a result of my investigation, the Victorian government is now moving to expunge these criminal records, which were given to children until as late as 1992, and considering a public apology.
This latest investigation reveals that it appears children in New South Wales and probably across the country were also criminalised in this way, and I speak to more people who say it permanently changed the course of their lives.
Sylvia Rowley 