Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Late last Friday in Canberra I read my home newspaper the West Australian. I am not a reader of death notices, but I often glance at the obituaries to see who their subject is. Way back in the classifieds on page 40 I spotted an obituary by the West’s reporter Torrance Mendez. I was shaken to see it was for Geoffrey Bruce Blyth, who had died 17 days earlier on 25 July 2006, aged 80. That meant I had not only missed his funeral but missed the chance to put in a timely death notice.

I really regret having missed the opportunity to pay my last respects to Bruce at his funeral, but I will take this opportunity to honour his memory on the record in the Senate, through this adjournment speech. I also do honour to Bruce here on behalf of my wife, Pam, and on behalf of my senior advisor, Dr Marilyn Rock, who had many dealings with Bruce and who, like me, regarded Bruce Blyth as an exceptional human being.

I did not know Bruce at all for most of his life. It is for others to tell that tale, and Torrance Mendez does detail a fair bit of that in the obituary. My own dealings with him were when he was in his late 70s. He showed passion, determination and concern as a campaigner; wisdom and balance as an advocate; and humour and courtesy in his personal dealings. He was a man you could rely on. In short, I owe him my respect. He is a man I held in great respect as an amazing Australian because of his commitment to the fight for truth and justice for former child migrants. So I also hope that in making this speech I can speak for the countless number of former child migrants and care leavers of Australia whose lives have been enriched by his campaigns or for having known him.

Geoffrey Bruce Blyth was born in 1926. I am sure he did much in his life, but it was the later years that were the motivation for the obituary dedication. Titled ‘Campaigner gave voice to victims of abuse’, it highlights the outstanding contribution he made for hundreds of former child migrants who were abused and terrorised in Christian Brother-run orphanages in Western Australia.

I arrived in Western Australia in 1989. I knew something of Mr Blyth’s contributions to the child migrant cause through various press reports and other publications, but I did not make his acquaintance until the lobbying process leading up to the 2001 Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into child migration. I clearly recall when first meeting him being struck by his humanity and strength of character. Although not a child migrant himself, his devotion to their cause is testimony to what one man’s compassion, concern and kindness can accomplish. It was at a deal of pain to himself, I might add; these are not easy people or issues to deal with.

It all began in the 1980s. Having retired from his teaching career and being a keen minor publisher, Bruce came across a manuscript written by a survivor of the now infamous Bindoon Boys Town in Western Australia. Moved by the tales of cruelty and the present-day plight of the survivors, he felt compelled not only to publish this and another story but also to take up their cause to achieve some measure of justice. From this, VOICES was formed in 1991. An acronym for Victims of Institutionalised Cruelty, Exploitation and Supporters, VOICES’ main activity was to press for a judicial inquiry into orphanages run by the Christian Brothers in Western Australia.

As director of VOICES, Bruce Blyth spearheaded a campaign for justice for those men who as vulnerable children had fallen victim to mental cruelty and deprivation, as well as horrific crimes of physical and sexual assaults, while under the care of the Christian Brothers in Western Australian orphanages.

This campaign prompted a Sunday Times journalist by the name of Frazer Guild to take up the issue. His reporting of the unfolding controversy was first rate and led to him winning a 1993 Walkley award commendation. Then, in 1994, three notable events transpired. The first was the tabling of a petition in the Western Australian parliament. Thirty thousand people had signed this petition demanding a judicial inquiry into the sexual and physical assaults and the general conditions that had occurred in the Christian Brother institutions of Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun. Although this judicial inquiry did not eventuate, valuable media coverage resulted in the establishment of a Western Australian parliamentary select committee to investigate child migration into WA.

The second event, of immense symbolic significance, was a VOICES campaign that led to the pulling down of the imposing statue of Brother Keaney with his hand laid on an orphan boy’s shoulder. Erected in 1957 at a prominent place at Bindoon, this statue denied the reality of the evil brute this man was. He was not benevolent, but malevolent. He was not kind, but cruel. He was not imposing, but a bully and tyrant. He was not a brother at all; he was a monster. Such was the evidence to the Senate Community Affairs child migrant inquiry of how brutal Keaney was that recommendation 4 of the 2001 report Lost innocents: righting the record unanimously recommended that the OBE awarded to Keaney for his work with orphans be cancelled and annulled. Unfortunately, the coalition government did not agree to this and, in spite of efforts since to have this award cancelled, Keaney’s name continues to sully the record of deserving recipients.

The third event concerns legal action taken on behalf of VOICES. Melbourne law firm Slater and Gordon agreed to mount a class action against the Christian Brothers. On filing 250 writs on behalf of men claiming damages against the Brothers, Mr John Gordon claimed that it could well have been one of the largest class actions in Australian legal history. Unfortunately, due to legal technicalities the case never really got off the ground and the men were essentially forced to accept a miserable and small out-of-court settlement described by Mr Blyth as ‘grossly insulting’.

To give a measure of the man Mr Blyth was, Haydn Stephens of Slater and Gordon wrote this about his commitment to the survivors of Christian Brother cruelty: ‘In the midst of their helplessness I met Bruce, a man of courage, compassion and dignity who took up the cause of these dispossessed men after reading of one man’s plight. For many of these men, he and his VOICES colleagues served as a beacon of light in a world which had otherwise betrayed them.’ At all times, through the long and often bitter battle to reveal the truth and gain justice, Bruce Blyth’s unwavering resolve meant he never deviated from the huge responsibility he had taken on. He is to be lauded for helping to expose the cruelty and crimes inflicted on young, defenceless children by the Christian Brothers order. He is to be lauded for taking on the struggle of men who had lost all trust in all things considered just, especially when that struggle involved some of the most powerful institutions of our world: the church, the courts and the government.

Such were his achievements and my high regard for him that in 2004 I nominated him for an award within the Order of Australia. This was not successful and to this day I cannot fathom why. Of course, you do not get reasons—too many powerful enemies, perhaps. It would have been a most fitting and deserved acknowledgement of such a fine contribution by such a fine man.

I know that in the later years of Bruce Blyth’s life his advocacy work on behalf of former child migrants had taken its toll. To come to learn of how innocent children suffered so terribly in care is no easy task. Nor is it any easier to learn about the often devastating long-term consequences of abused childhoods. As adults their life chances have been marred by economic and social impoverishment. It is even harder to realise that justice has been denied to so many who deserved it so much. Knowledge of such tragedies sink deep into one’s psyche. Indeed, no-one can emerge the same person as before. On behalf of all those fortunate enough to have encountered Bruce Blyth in the course of child migrant issues I extend my heartfelt sympathy to his wife and two children. Bruce Blyth’s life really did make a difference. We will miss him.