Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of document 20, volumes 1 and 2 of the interim report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. I thank the commissioners and their staff for their work so far and I deeply thank the courageous survivors who provided evidence to the commission about their experiences. Without their courage, these dark secrets would remain hidden and, as such, our community would not have had this opportunity to learn from these tremendous institutionalised wrongs and to work to ensure that these horrors are never repeated.

Volume 1 summarises the work done so far. As at the end of May, the commissioners had held 1,677 private sessions and received 1,632 written accounts. Over 1,000 people are currently waiting to attend a private session. The website has been viewed by over 233,000 visitors. At the end of June, 13 public hearings had spanned 96 days and heard from 219 witnesses. The commission had completed 21 research projects and started work on 12 more, while over 160 matters had been referred to the police for investigation.

Volume 2 shares 150 personal stories from survivors who shared their experience of abuse with the commission at a private session, including six stories from Tasmanian survivors. I will share one of those stories to the Senate tonight, but all names used are not the real names of people involved. The following is Sharon's story:

Soon after her birth in 1949, Sharon was placed in the care of Shirley, a woman living in country Tasmania. Sharon remembers about 10 different children coming and going in Shirley’s house over the years, and they were all sexually abused by Shirley’s partner, Trevor, and her son, Wayne.

Sharon was abused two to three times per week for around eight years. At the age of 12, she told Shirley about the abuse:

‘She gave me a belting and I thought, “That’s it, I’m going to go to the police. There’d have to be somewhere better than here”. I walked 13 kilometres to the station to tell them, but they wouldn’t listen. They put me in the car and drove me back, and said, “Don’t come here again”.’ I ran away when I was 15 because I was sick of it. I was hungry and I had no clothes. I took some things from the shop and got caught.’

When Sharon appeared in court … someone must have noted she was pregnant, because soon after she was sent to a Catholic girls’ home.… she didn’t receive any information about being pregnant, and wasn’t really aware that she was. One evening, she developed cramps and didn’t go to the evening meal. Her labour started soon after. Sharon said she tried to leave her room, but .. the door was locked … By the time her screams brought attention, she’d given birth to a baby girl. The baby was immediately taken from her, and Sharon was later given conflicting messages as to whether she had survived. A death certificate stated the baby was stillborn, but Sharon said she’d heard the baby cry, and she thought there was a possibility the girl was still alive.

Sharon later married and had two children. She didn’t tell her husband about the baby until the Government apology to the ‘Forgotten Australians’ in 2009. ‘There were so many people there just like me. It was a real eye opener.’ She carried a great sadness that the other children she’d grown up with had found their birth families and she hadn’t. ‘I think that would have helped, to know who I was, or to know something about where I’d come from.’

In 2010, Sharon received $55,000 from the Tasmanian State Government Redress Scheme. She said the payment meant a great deal to her. ‘They believed me, and I’d never been believed before. That was the first time.’

This survivor, Sharon, was failed by the Tasmanian government's foster care system, by the police, by the Catholic church and by everyone she had ever tried to trust while growing up, but she was brave enough to share her story with the commission.

Through the commission's work, our institutions are reforming their practices. The commission must be funded today complete its work to ensure all survivors of child sexual abuse have the opportunity to report their experiences. It is estimated that the commission needs a further $104 million. Considering that Senator Brandis reallocated $4 million from this commission to one of the Liberals' political royal commissions, I urge him to reinstate that $4 million and to find $100 million from within the budget. It is the right thing to do; it is the only thing to do. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.