By Dee McLachlan
For seven long years I have been caught in the vortex of Australia’s child-removal machinery — a place of star chambers where bureaucratic doppelgangers goose-stepping under the banner of “protection.” In this ecosystem, evidence evaporates, families are just collateral damage and children are inventory.
Lies, distortions, brow-beating, perjury, negligence, and abduction-by-administration have pushed me well past polite restraint. I have tried civility, cooperation, patience — even diplomacy, God help me. None of it has worked. Instead, I have been treated as if I were the threat — as if advocating for children is an act of treason against the State.
In this latest case — the runaway girls — I have witnessed an abuse of power so brazen, an inversion of facts so shameless, and an indifference to a child’s suffering so intolerable that today I am formally calling on the Minister, the Premier, and the Attorney-General to stand down the Secretary of the DFFH, Ms Peta McCammon.
I have sent her office more than a dozen letters, over 70 pages of detail: unlawful detention, systemic deception, defective orders, procedural sabotage, and sustained psychological harm inflicted on a 12 now turned 13-year-old child. And how did the Secretary respond to such grave material? She didn’t. Not once. Her office never answered the phone, not a single email or letter acknowledged — as though ignoring state-enabled torture might magically erase it. No one in authority responds.
The Secretary must go.
If the head of a department cannot act in a child’s best interests, cannot uphold the law, cannot manage her own workforce — then she has no business leading a system entrusted with thousands of Victoria’s young lives. And I can assure you almost anyone caught in the system would agree.
And as for the social workers involved — Kristy Bennet, Luvia Rivera, and Alex Borley, and the supporting cast — they too should be stood down. Their conduct warrants psychological and mental health assessments, not professional promotion. In my view, they should not be permitted to work with children again until they undergo intensive retraining in the most fundamental principle of child welfare…
…first, do no harm.
We Last week, I wrote to the case worker, and present this one paragraph describing the harm they subject the young lass to:
“On the basis of a now-discredited, vengefully-obtained, and legally void IVO, the Department hunted the young lass for nearly a year, unlawfully detained her, and placed her with the very person who threatened her life. You then detained her again as punishment for fleeing to safety, and have now effectively sequestered her to enforce an extremely harmful separation and isolation, creating your own personalized version of Secure Care 2.0.”
We have evidence that the police and the department are persecuting this family.
The Seven Stages of Grief
You’ll all be familiar with the 5 stages of grief, but here I extend two further levels.
My 2018 journey started with shock and denial — believing social workers and police had simply made an honest mistake. Then came the anger, when I realized the “error” was the system functioning exactly as designed. Bargaining followed: several years of letter writing, submissions, complaints and affidavits in every court jurisdiction. And when none of that moved the needle in the courts or oversight bodies, and having to witness the torture of parents depression set in for about a year. I woke one morning with a form of acceptance of humanity’s journey — and so wrote the book, The Child Protection Racket.
These two runaways have moved me onto the next 2 stages: meaning — where you decide the past carnage will not be for nothing, and finally, reconstruction: where you aim to rebuild with clarity, strength and wisdom.
Let’s review the industry’s 5 stage process.
The Five Stages of Child “Protection”
1. Denial – The department’s first reflex is to deny danger and dismiss disclosures: “There’s no evidence.” “The child exaggerates.” “The parent is unstable.” Truth is optional.
2. Deflection & Inversion – Responsibility is swiftly shifted elsewhere —and soon the protective parent is cast as the real problem, and the child’s plea for safety is rebranded as “behaviour.” The system flips the story and begins acting against the child it was meant to protect.
3. Escalation & Entrenchment – Once the wrong conclusion is locked in, the department doubles down. Records are rewritten, reports cherry-picked, exculpatory material buried, and the legal process weaponized. The department is not in child protection but in self-protection.
4. Institutional Harm – Harm now comes directly from the system itself — arbitrary detention, forced placement with unsafe parents, degrading treatment, psychological coercion, and the deliberate severing of family bonds.
5. Systemic Trafficking – The department functions less like a welfare agency and more like an extraction industry. Children become inventory — removed, relocated, and disconnected from family. The multi-billion industry is indistinguishable from state-enabled child trafficking.
Definition of Child trafficking: the recruitment, movement, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child — by force, coercion, deception, abuse of power, or exploitation of vulnerability — for the purpose of control, exploitation, or gain.
Fox Guarding the Hen House
I wrote two letters to Ms McCammon in September pleading for her to help the sisters (who were in hiding).
What emerges from the record is not mere administrative failure but a systemic collapse of lawful child protection under the leadership of Secretary Peta McCammon. This harm is not accidental. It was unlawfully reinforced through detention practices that breached the letter and spirit of the law: “The young lass was detained for eight weeks… Detention exceeds statutory limits (21-day limit and 42-day limit with ‘exceptional circumstances’) under ss 173–175A of the Act 2005 (Vic).”
Ms McCammon would have had to have signed any extensions.
This represents an unlawful deprivation of liberty and a direct breach of ss 21–22 of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights, which guarantee humane treatment and prohibit arbitrary detention. These conditions violate s 161B CYFA, the Charter (ss 21–22), and Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits cruel, degrading, or arbitrary treatment of a child. I wrote:
“She was put in secure care against her will and strip-searched… There were five cameras in the room… a hard mattress on the floor… bullet-proof windows… only allowed outside for half an hour a day… They wouldn’t let me talk to my mum; if she said I had been abducted they hung up the call.”
It is inconceivable that a Secretary could remain in office while children are subjected to degrading incarceration. Worse still, the Department’s interventions directly created and compounded the children’s homelessness. One letter notes: “The various State IVO ‘protections’ are in direct conflict — effectively rendering the children parentless and homeless.” Under basic administrative law and duty-of-care principles, no Secretary can justify an intervention that collapses a child’s legal protections.
Authorities hunted this child down, with an affidavit stating that “police attending twenty addresses and calling at the mother’s home up to four times a day.”
All of this culminated in the clearest evidence of persecution and harm — the child’s own voice (from her diary): “I am terrified of all these people except my mum… I want to live with my mum… She makes me happy. She is the most beautiful woman in the world.” I called the DFFH more than twenty times, and the very day after I pleaded with Ms McCammon’s department — and with police — to hold a family group meeting to de-escalate matters, the police instead turned up to do the opposite. They chose the most adversarial and harmful path to once again incarcerate an innocent 13-year-old child.
This is not a system in need of “review.” This is a system requiring removal of leadership — decisively and without delay. The case of this young lass needs to be discontinued before more harm is done to here. They claim the mum is a risk for ‘harbouring’ them to keep her daughters safe for eight months,
The department IS the risk.
Opps … risk confirmed in Today’s News.
Firstly I will not do harm by an epic sledge of truth.
Dee is presenting a rally place and I hope you heed the call. I myself could and intend to do better. If there is a better place to be judged, tell me. I would wager it can not be found.
Thanks Simon. I can say, these first few articles have been simply “please do the right thing”. Today is phase 2… but I can assure readers, we’ve only just begun.
It would be interesting to know what salary Ms PETA McCammon is on.
My bet is, that it is more than anything Ms McLachlan is on.
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For that loving warm feeling that they are beautiful and keeping children safe in Victoria, search for 2025 the;
‘VICTORIA PROTECTING CHILDREN AWARDS’
At:
‘dffh.vic.gov.au’ for that safe and caring bubbly feeling that’s ALL IS GOOD IN VICTORIA.
Bit late this year as wards announced last September.
The opening for next year will probably be in March again.
If you sniff about some more at the HFFH WEBSITE, all the nice admin and caring principle boxes get their ticks.
Move along mass media and ABC, nothing to worry about with Dee’s 6 part report.
307.
Why do I think; recollect the covid mandates, injections, masks, 6 feet stuff et.al., covid policies in olden DanLand?
Now all good ,the flu is back with loving hugs keeping the children safe, must be heavenly these days!
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‘DFFH’ WEBSITE🤷♂️💁
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MEDIA RELEASE
Media release
Tuesday 18 April 2023
RECOGNISING THE EVERYDAY HEROES WHO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE
Everyone can play a role in protecting vulnerable children and ensuring the next generation of Victorians the best possible start in life.
From today, Victorians are encouraged to nominate individuals, teams, carers and groups who demonstrate excellence in working with children, young people and their families, for this year’s Victorian Protecting Children Awards.
“Our child protection staff, service agencies and carers work tirelessly to protect vulnerable children and young people and now is the time to recognise that hard work and ask for more Victorians to put their hand up to help.”
We’ll help you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bloody hell, so many to consider and examine fo a award.
Judges, magistrates. social workers, child psychologists, police officers , government ministers, hundreds of DFFH bureaucrats, and even those caring journalists, shock jokes and mass media current affairs reports and news.
Who to recommend?
Stuff it, forget all the BS and just let decent caring humane citizens DO THEIR BLOODY JOB prioritising the poor children, just doing their jobs properly as a human belong is their reward
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Brave government employees out Tim Walz for diverting dollars from Feed the Children programs , the true number being as possibly as high as $8 billion .
Don’t fret , there will be an investigations , ignored by the media , and then life will continue as normal if the pattern holds .
Trump already ostracized for saying ” we have to stop letting garbage into the country ” is the real crime according to the media .
Somali immigrants are in trouble according to Trump , but I suspect Walz to walk free , maybe prosecuted in secret , and forced to do a few things against his will ,
but more than likely he will walk — at least publicly .
Would cheerfully be glad to be wrong on this .
https://nypost.com/2025/12/01/opinion/gov-tim-walzs-woke-refusal-to-call-out-somali-scammers-cost-his-state-1b/
I’m so tired of stupid. Crikey, even when I objected to Somalis being imported into Oz on this forum I was called a ‘RACIST’. – Fuck you, back then the calculated average IQ of a Somali was 69, recently it was calculated at 67. Like WTF people, you want a heap of dumb-asses that can’t even begin to assimilate into a 21st Century culture living off your taxes on welfare?
Minnesota used to be called the ‘Land of Lakes’, it is now becoming the ‘Land of Stupid’.
If I am not mistaken , Minnesota took in corrupt Somali officials who were overthrown by their own people and not wanted even in Somalia .
We do really fall into a cognitive dissonance not able to comprehend how child abuse can be dealt with more child abuse, and why the corruption. It took me years until I got to understand that in the US (we need to research for the state of affairs in Australia) they are simply making a large $$ on removals. They are paid bonuses for doing this. Let’s make an enquiry and public break down of how it is incentivised. Behind every incomprehensible act is an incentive.
– Watch Stand with Meg and Jessica Saxton – mothers who became human rights advocates.
– Study imperial acts, most of them still valid – unlike the statutes that are pushed down ppl’s throat with violation of due process.
– Stand down all crooks.
Well said… so right:
how to “comprehend how child abuse can be dealt with more child abuse”
… sort it out by isolation and separatism…
And how about family court…
The couple have a dispute… so enter to court to purposes inflame the accusations — to use inflamed dispute to resolve dispute????
Yes all about $$$$$
The Bill of Rights 1688 is valid in all states. Research why it is important in Australia and why statutes later than 1888 are void.
A must watch
[EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL] : John Kiriakou: The CIA’s Tortures and Crimes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qVZ2KGc9-g
Alex Krainer: New U.S. National Security Strategy Signals New World Order
Glenn Diesen
Course correction is a blow to the Globalists NWO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtpbn6mkDnQ