Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is an incredible privilege to be able to rise in this House to make a contribution to this motion regarding the second anniversary of the national apology to the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. It's a little over two years ago that this House became the centrepiece of that apology. There were survivors from across the nation who had travelled to Canberra to bear witness to this parliament's unconditional apology. This was an incredibly important moment in our nation's history. I wish to acknowledge a number of events that really led us to that point of a national apology in parliament. Many of my colleagues have touched on this in the debate.

At the outset, I wish to pay tribute to the work of the royal commission. I don't think we can ever overstate the significance of that royal commission in terms of the forum that it provided to really shine a light on what had been a terribly dark and shameful part of this nation's history. A number of acts were required in order to get a royal commission in the first place. It's at this point that I want to acknowledge the former Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who, against extraordinary pressure from very powerful vested interests, signed off on committing this nation to a royal commission on the eve of losing her office. It was one of the last acts she committed as the Prime Minister of this nation and it will be part of her enduring legacy. There is another Prime Minister that I need to acknowledge, and they are no longer in this place either, and that is Malcolm Turnbull. I do so because it was under Malcolm Turnbull's leadership that the parliament agreed to the process of a national apology. He formed a national apology reference group, which I and three other parliamentarians were very privileged to be part of, along with wide-ranging representation of survivor groups, that provided the Prime Minister of the day—and it was Malcolm Turnbull for a significant part of our work—with some direction as to the—

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