Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. On another matter, I call on the government to have the decency to admit it got it wrong on the national redress scheme for the survivors of institutional child sex abuse. It is over a year since the royal commission recommended a national redress scheme and the government responded, eventually, with a half-baked model that fails to compel responsible institutions to account for the extraordinary harm they inflicted. The government itself acknowledges that only a national redress scheme can provide just outcomes, but it says it will 'invite other governments and institutions to opt in'. It is weak and it is pathetic. 'Opt in' is a phrase we might expect in relation to a mailing list, not for reparations for the sexual abuse of thousands of children. It is one year on, and how many states have joined? None—not one state. The Prime Minister's waffle says:

A truly national scheme requires the support of the states and territories.

Yet the government has spent over a year failing to win any support.

The conversations I have had in my local community with affected local residents, most recently Alan of Glen Waverley, are truly heartbreaking. The courage demonstrated by survivors, over years and years—in some cases by children who were abused in multiple state institutions and religious institutions—should be recognised. These institutions responsible have failed utterly to account for these most grievous wrongs and the federal government, in its shame, is failing survivors too. Institutions will not be forced to recognise the harm inflicted, individually or systemically, in their names and within their walls. They will not be compelled to provide appropriate financial compensation to those lives which have been irreparably damaged as a result. The recommendations of the royal commission were clear. They continue to call for a national redress scheme, not a year ago but on 7 March, and this week, as it enters its final session of hearings, the royal commissioner again said the government needs to look at this. This is important.

Survivors have waited decades for redress and, sadly, some will not live to see it realised. The government must acknowledge the flaws inherent in the scheme as proposed and commit to an effective national redress scheme as recommended by the royal commission. The opportunity to do so, to put this right and to do the right thing by survivors of child sexual abuse is in this budget. For some survivors, it is about acknowledgement; it is about recognition; it is about the apology. For some, it is about the money and the possibilities provided by compensation. But, for every single survivor, it is about justice. Labor calls on the government to do the right thing.

It is indicative, in my view, of the wrong priorities we see from the government—and we saw it again in question time today. The pattern is clear. In Liberal government land, the effort is put into protecting the wealthy and prosecuting a tax cut for the top end. For every million dollar earner, they get $16,000 in tax, yet they defend wage cuts to the lowest income workers. We will not stand for it. We say they are the wrong priorities. A good way to show that they really care, they have listened and they have heard the message is to do the right thing by properly funding a national redress scheme in the budget.

See this speech in context