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

Mr Speaker, my question is to the Minister for Social Services. Will the minister update the House on the progress of the national redress bill and the significance of this important piece of legislation to survivors of child sex abuse?

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for his question, and I acknowledge this is an issue which is very dear to his heart—I know it has touched his family—and I would like to thank him for the contribution he's made to this debate and the passage of this bill, as I would all members of this House.

Today the Senate passed the National Redress Scheme. What it showed was that this parliament, every single member of this parliament both here in the House and in the Senate, was able to put survivors first. And today will mean a lot to those survivors. Come 1 July, we will be able to provide them with redress, and our task now—and I say this very much in a bipartisan fashion—is to make sure we deliver that redress to the best of our ability. It will involve a payment of up to $150,000, access to psychological counselling services and personal apologies from the institutions.

Not only do we have a commitment from every state and territory government to join the National Redress Scheme, but we also have the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Salvation Army, the Scouts, the Uniting Church and the YMCA agreeing to be part of the scheme. That takes coverage to over 90 per cent, and I look forward to other institutions joining over the coming weeks.

Prime Minister, when we met with survivors and with the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales and their attorneys-general at Kirribilli, Leonie Sheedy was there. She has advocated incredibly strongly for this National Redress Scheme. You will remember she cut your tie in half, she cut Dan Andrews' tie in half and then she cut Mark Speakman's and Martin Pakula's ties in half. She then headed to cut my tie in half. I said to Leonie I didn't want to do that because I wanted to see the passage of the bill through before I cut the tie in half that I wore that day. I will be going back to my office, I will be cutting that tie in half and I will be sending it to Leonie.

I would like to now call on the shadow minister for social services, Jenny Macklin, to say a few words.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Disability and Carers (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: I thank the minister very much. Maybe he should wait until he sees Leonie and let her cut his tie. I'm sure she'll take great pleasure in doing so. I do want to associate the opposition with the words of the minister and thank him for his commitment and his hard work, frankly, to get to today. As he said, it is an extraordinary achievement, first and foremost, for the survivors of child sexual abuse, for the care leavers from institutions. Of course, as all of us know, no amount of money will enable these people who were abused as children to get their childhoods back, but this will be a way in which all of us, all Australians, can acknowledge and pay some compensation for the horrific abuse that people have suffered. Today is a very significant day. It will be a very, very difficult task for this redress to be delivered. A lot of people will have to remember again the abuse that they suffered. But it is something that people have worked very hard for, and I thank the government for their efforts.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.