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

CLAYDON (—) (): I thank all the speakers who have come before me to lend their support to this most important bill, the Crimes Amendment (Strengthening the Criminal Justice Response to Sexual Violence) Bill 2024, before the Australian parliament. This amendment to the Crimes Act, which will indeed strengthen the criminal justice response for victims and survivors of sexual assault in Australia, is important work of this parliament. It's been a long time coming, and I, along with many of my colleagues, have sat on numerous inquiries over the years and through important royal commissions and have read papers written by experts and, most importantly, the testimony of the victims and survivors themselves, who have called for these changes to occur in our criminal justice system. The legislation before the House today will go a long way to improving the experience of victims and survivors of sexual violence, particularly for vulnerable people in Commonwealth criminal proceedings.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse—a very important royal commission for this nation, which former Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved in the last moments of her role as Prime Minister—made 409 recommendations. In its final report to improve laws, policies and practices to prevent and better respond to child sexual abuse, it put forward a number of really key recommendations that this legislation is now picking up. All 206 of the Commonwealth related recommendations from that royal commission are now implemented or are in progress, and this legislation specifically addresses four of those that were related to the pre-recording of evidence for vulnerable people and provides for those recordings to be admissible in criminal proceedings. I cannot thank the Attorney-General enough for bringing this bill forward. We just heard from the previous speaker that there was so much evidence provided in that royal commission. There are two volumes of that royal commission dedicated to the horrific crimes that were committed in my hometown of Newcastle. My community, I dare to say, along with those of Ballarat, probably experience more of the ongoing pain and trauma of child sexual abuse that occurred in institutions that utterly betrayed the trust and faith that were put into them at the time. The profound and ongoing effects of those are seen and lived every day in our community.

Taking up those remaining recommendations that go to assisting vulnerable people to not have to repeat their story again and again and instead allow for pre-recordings of that evidence to be used throughout criminal proceedings is a great step forward. It has been one that survivors and victims have asked for for a long time now, and it is great to see this Albanese Labor government putting that into law. This legislation also advances theme 2 of the first National Action Plan of the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030. That is to underline support and empowerment of victims and survivors. The national strategy recognises that the effects of child sexual abuse can be cumulative, complex and long lasting. I think I indicated before that communities like Newcastle can attest to just how complex and long lasting those impacts are, not just for victims and survivors but also for their families and all of those who knew and loved them. It's devastating.

This legislation will also be supporting the Standing Council of Attorneys-General's workplan, which is to again strengthen criminal justice responses to sexual assault. That workplan runs from 2022 to 2027, and it seeks to bring all the states and territories and the Commonwealth together to take collective and individual actions to improve the experiences of victims-survivors of sexual assault in the criminal justice system. So you can see that this legislation is really building on a lot of important work done before in terms of the royal commission, but it is also an integral part of implementing aspects of the national plan and the attorneys-general's workplan in terms of strengthening the criminal justice responses to sexual assault.

You might ask: why might that be the case? There are probably not many women in Australia who would ask that question, but there might be some in this chamber who perhaps haven't been as closely associated with a shocking case of child sexual abuse or who aren't across the prevalence of sexual violence in our communities. I don't know a single woman who has not at some stage in her life given serious consideration to these matters. It is still, tragically, the case in Australia that the majority of people do not report sexual assaults. We've got some statistics, and I am the first to underline the fact that it is very difficult at times to work through the data that is available. There are variant survey methods that are being applied, but it is estimated that some 200,000 sexual assaults occur in Australia each year, and only 11 to 13 per cent of those are ever reported to police. Of that group, only about five per cent make it to trial and, of that group, only about two per cent result in a conviction.

These are damning statistics. It is little wonder that, when we try to put our minds to why so few people are choosing to report, it is quite confronting to us as a society, because women—and it is predominantly women. I do acknowledge that there is a proportion of men who are victims and survivors of sexual assault, especially in the case of the child sexual assaults that occurred in our institutions. The reasons that people give for not reporting sexual violence and sexual assault in our communities is that most times they are related to the offender or they are known to that offender. Their relationship to that offender is deeply complex, and that is a profound barrier to seeking justice. They lack confidence in our justice system, and I think those statistics I mentioned earlier give you a sense of why that might be the case. They fear reprisals and stigma.

Let's not forget the deeply troubling and erroneous view—but no less embedded mythology—in our communities that women lie about sexual assault. This is still prevalent in so many circles. Anything we can do to now break down these barriers to justice is a good thing. There was a slight glimmer of hope when I looked at the statistics, in that sexual assault reports to police are steadily rising. We are seeing some increase over time, so perhaps some of those barriers are beginning to break down, but we have an enormous way to go. Legislative reform like that before the House today is an absolutely important part, and I am so profoundly grateful to this government and the Attorney-General for not shying away from this legislative reform that is required.

But let's not kid ourselves: what has to accompany legislative reform is really profound cultural change in our communities. That is the really hard slog work, and that has to be accompanied by comprehensive, evidence based community education campaigns that make very clear to people the drivers of gender based violence. We know one of the very big drivers of gender based violence is the deep gender inequities that continue to exist in this community. I am so proud to be a part of a government that is putting gender equality at the centre of everything we do. Every piece of legislation we have considered in this House has had a gender lens run across it to ensure we are doing the very best we can to not just do legislative reform to assist victims and survivors but work in those areas that will go to addressing and preventing these shameful harms, crimes and acts that continue to have far too great a prevalence in our communities today.

Many before me have gone to the detail of this legislation; I really appreciate the thoughtful contributions from before. What is so good about this legislation is it really is putting the victims and survivors, and their experiences, back at the centre of our legislative thinking. I think the privilege that is now being given to lived experience in the adviser panels the Attorney-General has put together—in fact, most ministers across a range of portfolios now have these fantastic expert panels that are advising them at each step of the way that are made up of people with lived experience. This is a great step for lawmaking in this country. I applaud all the ministers, and especially the Attorney-General in this context, for making sure the lived experience of victims and survivors is at the centre of our thinking and our drafting of laws now.

There will be many people in my community much relieved to see these amendments being made here today. Sadly, in my community I have many people who have children who are victims, who are still surviving, and parents who, to this day, grieve the loss of their child who was subjected to horrific acts of crime in those very institutions that purported to care for them. I say to those families, on the tragic circumstances in which they lost their children: I hope we honour them and their lives in some way today by removing some of those very stubborn barriers to justice that people have experienced in Australia. The profound and ongoing impacts that sexual violence has on the lives of so many people in the communities we represent in this House is a constant reminder to me. If we can make the criminal justice system a place where people have confidence they will be afforded justice, that will be a very good thing.

I just want to pay tribute to all those advocates, all of those survivors and all those that have worked on the criminal justice system for many, many decades now trying to get a better and more just outcome. I say thank you for your service to our communities. I don't underestimate how difficult that work is. If this has been triggering for anybody, I do want to remind all survivors and victims that, please, there is support. Reach out. 1800RESPECT and other organisations are there. We hear you, we believe you and let's get justice for you too.

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