Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

We mark five years since the national apology to victims and survivors of institutional child sex abuse, and I acknowledge, with the greatest respect, all Australians who have been impacted by institutional child sexual abuse. We are deeply sorry for the suffering you endured. We're sorry for every time you spoke up but were not believed by those who should have been protecting you from harm. We hear you now. We believe you. Australia believes you. These are incredibly important words that have been spoken by prime ministers and parliamentarians, and they send a very powerful message to those that have been impacted.

The other message, though, I want to send today is that we will continue to hear you, believe you and do all we can to support you and keep children safe from harm. As the government, and as members from all sides in this place, we have accepted responsibility and we are working together and acting to address the pain of these failures that have caused your suffering. But we also need to resolve to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

I know that an apology can never take away the trauma and the pain, but this acknowledgment does bring what for so many decades was an unspoken trauma and pain out of the shadows and into the light. But we know that it must be backed by action, and it must be action that is driven by victim-survivors. As one of the ministers responsible in this area, I will continue to listen, to believe and, importantly, to ensure that victim-survivors' voices are at the centre of the action we take.

The National Redress Scheme is an incredibly important way of providing acknowledgment but also of turning that acknowledgement into action. All states and territories have reaffirmed their commitment to the continuous improvement of the scheme and to place the voices of survivors at its centre. The scheme is now almost 5½ years into its 10-year life span, and we encourage any institution that has a history of working with children, particularly those institutions that have been named in applications, to join it. While it's not compulsory to join, I believe there is a moral obligation for you to join this scheme.

There are now nearly 500 non-government institutions participating in the scheme, covering around 69,000 churches, schools, homes, charities, community and sporting groups across Australia. This has resulted in 15,000 outcomes, with payments totalling approximately $1.2 billion. Many applicants have chosen to receive an apology from the institution. Many survivors have found a direct personal response to be very important in helping them to achieve a sense of healing and to feel like something is being done to help make things right.

For many survivors, the redress application is the first time they've told anyone about what happened to them. We recognise—and I recognise—the trauma and the difficulty involved in applying for redress and in coming forward and putting these experiences into words. I acknowledge the strength and resilience it takes to share these stories for the first time and the bravery and courage it takes to come forward.

There has been strong progress towards improving the scheme thanks to the commitment from and meaningful consultations with survivors and support services. I would particularly like to acknowledge those survivors that have turned their experience and their pain into advocacy. It takes courage and bravery, and that needs to be commended. Every time I speak with survivors about their desire to make things different for someone else I am always moved.

Through the service charter, there is now an embedded survivor round table, which is so important for hearing the voices of survivors on how we can improve the scheme. We've also been able to provide more support services across Australia. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those on the front line of the redress support services who really do care and who, in a trauma-informed way, hold, support and walk alongside those seeking redress.

More work needs to be done and is being done to ensure that those people who are often excluded from services—people with disability, First Nations people and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds—are having their needs met and have a pathway for redress. Listening to the people with lived experience is how we will continue to make improvements to this scheme. I commit that I will continue to engage with survivors, advocates, service providers and frontline services to ensure that they do get the support they need.

Of course, this week our government has introduced legislation in response to the second-year review to strengthen the scheme, and I would like, once again, to thank everyone that shared their experiences through the second anniversary review of the scheme. These improvements, made in response to the review, make it easier for survivors to apply for the scheme, and include the removal of the requirement for an application to include a statutory declaration. We've committed to other improvements in the scheme, including offering reassessment of an application if a relevant institution subsequently joins the scheme, removing the restrictions on people applying from prison and further expanding access to redress for former child migrants. This is just one of the ways we are looking at how we best support people.

I do want to spend a small amount of time on prevention, and I would like to acknowledge the work being done by my colleague the Attorney-General, and the National Office for Child Safety. This office is incredibly important, and the work being done, including the national strategy, is really important. What sits alongside that national strategy is Safe and supported: the national framework for protecting Australia's children 2021-2031. This has been an important strategy that has two action plans underneath it, one of which is particularly dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Through these different processes, the work will continue.

I want to briefly mention the work being done by the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse. Their vision—and I thought it was important to share their vision—is:

A community where children are safe and victims and survivors are supported to heal and recover, free of stigma and shame—a future without child sexual abuse.

It is incumbent on us to take steps to repair the mistakes and the devastating impacts of what was horrific—horrific—abuse, to try and repair those parts of the past. This is exactly what the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse does. They put everything into ensuring that we stamp out this insidious, horrific behaviour.

The national centre has now launched its five-year strategy. I was so privileged to be at the launch of that five-year strategy. It has a really substantive work program that does look at healing, but it does look at prevention as well. This is a critical part of how we not only turn our words into actions, but also try and live up to what victim-survivors are asking for—that we do everything in our power to prevent what happened to so many from happening again. On those notes, I commend the motion to the House.

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