Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to update the House on the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, but I would also like to mention to the member for Throsby that I am running an ice forum tomorrow with the minister in my electorate. I assure him that the information we will be taking will be evidence based and that we will be feeding it back to the task force, but I appreciate his support for this task force.

The royal commission has been in the news a lot this week, but the reason I rise to talk about it is in the hope of the implementation of a national redress scheme both to recognise the suffering by innocent children in institutional care across Australia and to provide a means of compensation for the trauma they suffered. I have spoken about financial redress previously in this place and will continue to do so, but it is also priority access to services such as medical, legal, dental and housing that is needed for victims of abuse—not in another 10 or 20 years but as soon as practical.

In the past week, members would have seen a lot of discussion about the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on the news due to high-profile church leaders being questioned about the abuse they allegedly inflicted on children in institutional care or questioned about those instances of abuse they were aware of but turned a blind eye to. Given the news coverage, I do, however, believe it is important to highlight that this abuse was not limited just to churches and neither is the royal commission's inquiry. I have said before that this should not be a witch-hunt around one church; it should be about finding those who abused children in institutions, whether they were charities, organisations or churches. It is not just about one church. This inquiry is into all institutions where claims of child abuse have been made across Australia. It is an inquiry which has revealed some of the most harrowing and horrific stories I have heard.

What people often forget is that abuse is not just sexual or physical. It is also when a child is mentally or emotionally mistreated. It is when they are poorly fed or poorly educated. And it is when they are denied their identity. The royal commission seeks to give these victims a voice to fight back against the forms of abuse they suffered, while the establishment of a redress scheme would ensure that each of these victims finally receives compensation. I highlight that state based redress schemes have previously been implemented in Western Australia and in Queensland, but they did not come close to appropriately compensating those victims who were unable apply in time before the schemes were shut down. Since the establishment of the royal commission inquiry, there has been another call for a national redress scheme. Thankfully, more people are starting to understand that a national redress scheme is the only way victims can be appropriately compensated, and the campaign for its implementation is continuing to progress.

Just this week, I arranged for the Care Leavers Australia Network, or CLAN, president, Maureen Cuskelly, and CLAN CEO and legend Leonie Sheedy to meet with the Minister for Social Services, Scott Morrison, to discuss the royal commission and the establishment of a national redress scheme. I was grateful that the minister met with them, and he has also agreed to visit CLAN's National Orphanage Museum in Sydney, which features all manner of donated items from victims' time in these institutions. Such items include home uniform badges, letters, and statements of receipts and payments from institutions. I thank the minister for taking the time to meet with Maureen and Leonie. I can say that he was genuinely interested in the government's national response to the victims when the findings of the royal commission are brought down.

For all the royal commission has proven, one key thing is that, to truly understand what these victims of abuse suffered, it is best to hear it in their own words. I would like, therefore, to read a few excerpts from the spoken submission that Leonie and Maureen made to the royal commission on behalf of CLAN. It begins:

The lives of Care Leavers have been greatly diminished by the pain and suffering they experienced as children growing up in institutions. The loss of their childhoods in many instances was complete.

We were children who grew up believing we were second-class citizens, that we were worthless and fit for nothing.

And, as adults, we continued to believe this.

After years of neglect inside institutions we were released as young adults desperately unprepared for the world, with barely any education, life skills, let alone parenting skills.

For some of us, adulthood has been plagued by drug abuse, mental illness, broken relationships, poverty and homelessness.

For others, adulthood brought us the normality of work and family but no escape from haunting memories of deprivation and cruelty.