By Julia Perkins
On the evening of June 13, a worker at the Bankstown Youth Refuge was murdered. Neena Bisen, a 34-year-old youth worker with experience in India and the United States, was allegedly stabbed to death by two girls, aged 15 and 17, residents of the refuge. Police say the attack was part of a robbery which had been planned earlier in the day.
Two boys, 14 and 16, are also facing charges. The four teenagers are alleged to have plotted to steal the keys to the refuge's bus from Bisen during her night shift.
Bisen's death has sent shock waves through the welfare sector and, in particular, the refuge system.
"We are shocked and saddened at the unnecessary waste of a life", Ann Hazelton, a youth worker at the Liverpool Youth Refuge, told Green Left Weekly. "The horror of this incident is the overwhelming sense of inevitability which surrounds it — inevitability due to the lack of funding, and lack of security and resources associated with residential care."
Funding levels to the welfare sector have not been adjusted for two to three years. Liverpool, with 18% youth unemployment, the highest rate in NSW, has only one short-term refuge. Since mid-1993, the refuge has had to operate at half capacity.
Australia has the highest youth suicide rate of the OECD countries. Yet the government shows little commitment to real job creation.
For the young unemployed, homeless, abused and disadvantaged, life is cheap, something that may be easily expended. The language these young victims know is one of violence and survival by any means necessary. They are victims of a system that does not care.
It was 1992, after a long struggle, when the welfare sector finally won an award. However, the proper implementation of this award in the workplace remains a battle.
In the majority of cases, community services management committees find themselves caught between the legal obligation to provide adequate working conditions for their employees, and the lack of funding needed for the implementation of even the minimal conditions.
This will be one of the issues raised at an urgent meeting called by the Youth Services Accommodation Association Network. How best to raise public awareness about homeless and disadvantaged youth, as well as other issues facing community service workers, will also be on the agenda.
"Until we begin to address the real causes of such horrific and desperate violence, and seriously seek to change the nature of this sick society, we can expect to see sad incidents, like that which occurred at the Bankstown Youth Refuge, reach epidemic proportions", Hazelton concluded. [Julia Perkins is the coordinator of the Liverpool Youth Refuge.]