But I cannot accept that the evidence had not pushed a fair number of people past the grey area in a case reported on The Herald's front page yesterday. The report of a Newcastle Local Court hearing told how police, after being alerted by Department of Housing smoke alarm inspectors, had found three children living in such filth that the police had to cut short their search of the home in the interests of their own health. There was human faeces stored in plastic bags, an overflowing toilet, no lights, an infestation of cockroaches, and the bedroom floors were so littered with dog faeces that the children slept with their father in the loungeroom. The children are aged 10, 12 and 14 and now living with their mother, and the 14-year-old was in tears when the department inspectors overcame his attempts to prevent their entry to the home.

The father was fined $800 for child neglect, and I can't see what such a penalty will achieve other than exacerbating a terrible situation.

But what angers me most is that neighbours, parents of the children's friends, and school staff must have known that the children were living in disturbing circumstances and done nothing. Or not enough. The mother, who lives elsewhere and who has seen the children regularly, must have known more than she'll admit to now. These children could not have left the stench, the filth, the stamp of squalor at the front door.

Surely some will have phoned DOCS, or Community Services as it calls itself now. Remember Ebony? Did DOCS go to check? Was it fobbed off at the front door? I have seen too many DOCS failures to allow a name change to sweeten my cynicism.

What are your thoughts on the fine, the community's blind eye, the future of such families and children?