AUSTRALIA VIEW

Parents must be held to account

It's an age-old question; how much can parents be held accountable for the actions of their children.

Townsville's Judge Clive Wall answered it yesterday when he took the hard line and forced parents to pay for the criminal action of their children.
He became the first in Queensland to enforce section 258 of the Juvenile Justice Act which goes some way to policing the performance of parents.
The Act says that the courts can act if “a parent of the child may have contributed to the fact the offence happened by not adequately supervising the child”.
Judge Wall's actions will no doubt be welcomed by the wider community.
It will be greeted with a sigh that finally someone in the judiciary is listening to a growing number of people dissatisfied with the so-called justice being meted out by our courts.
It will also be welcomed by other organisations with a stake in younger generations, such as schools and sporting organisations, who too often have been left to clean up after bad parenting.

The key to Judge Wall's decision lies in the simple observation that two sets of parents “didn't really try”.
It was not a question of whether or not they loved their children or whether they cared how they turned out. They just gave up.
The court found the children were not encouraged to go to school, they had little or no supervision, there was no system of punishment at home and they were allowed to come and go from their home whenever they chose.
It is another symptom of a throwaway society and it is a story that is familiar in neighbourhoods all over the country.
There are social reasons for the decline in parental supervision and there will be those who argue that it is the parents who have been let down at some point as well, and this may well be the case.
But someone has to draw a line in the sand or nothing will change.
Judge Wall has decided that, in this case at least, he would be that person. By ordering these parents to take some financial responsibilities he is sending a message that parents who shirk their responsibilities will no longer be aided and abetted by a system that has not been very good at bringing people to account.

“I am satisfied both parents didn't try”

22 July 2005

http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,16007986%255E15702,00.html

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