Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to pay tribute to a well-respected South Australian who has been a longstanding and passionate advocate for those who do not have a voice: children. Freda Briggs is well known in South Australia as professor emeritus in child development and as a researcher and lecturer in sociology, child protection and family studies at the University of South Australia. She previously held the role of Dean of the Institute of Early Childhood Development and Family Studies. A fearless and honest advocate, Professor Briggs is also the go-to expert to provide commentary and insight on issues on child protection. Ask any journalist and Professor Briggs's number will be in their address book.

Her expertise in the area of child protection is not only revered in South Australia. Professor Briggs was named as the 2000 Senior Australian of the Year, the second person ever to receive the honour, for her work in child protection. She became an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005 and was the inaugural recipient of the Australian Humanitarian Award for outstanding pioneering work for children. Internationally, she has worked in New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Fiji and the United States, to name but a few countries. Professor Briggs is a national treasure and the work that she has done on child protection is invaluable in South Australia, nationally and internationally.

Born in England during the Great Depression, she left school at just 14 years of age, eventually accepting a role with the London Metropolitan Police. She became a specialist in child protection while working for the Met. In an interview with the ABC's Ian Henschke some years ago, Professor Briggs spoke of how she became involved in the issue of child protection while a police officer. She said:

…I was often taking children into the care of the state, into children's homes, and realised that given their home backgrounds, they didn't stand a chance. And I was one of the soft-hearted policewomen who befriended children and sent them birthday presents, and wrote to them and took them on outings.

From there Professor Briggs moved into social work, finding herself dealing with many of the same clients she dealt with as a police officer. Professor Briggs continued:

… in those days, social workers had to work the hours that suited their clients, which were usually evenings and weekends, and by that time I had a family, so I went into teaching. And of course, with that very strange background, I was placed in a really tough school, and realised as a teacher that I could spot abused children, neglected children that other teachers couldn't spot.

Professor Briggs moved to Australia in 1975 and began working as a director of early childhood studies at the State College of Victoria. In 1994, she was appointed professor of childhood development of the University of South Australia, a position she still holds as an emeritus professor.

Professor Briggs has an enviable academic history. I am conscious that I only have 10 minutes or so and that will not permit me to get through it all. Needless to say, it is a very impressive CV. It is worth noting that much of the work done by Professor Briggs has been voluntary. I have been fortunate enough to work with Professor Briggs on child protection issues over the years. As an educator, academic and author, she has worked tirelessly towards providing a safer world for children, taking on a subject that many of us would prefer not to think about.

Professor Briggs will be the first to admit that as a nation we have some way to go. We know there are serious systemic problems with the way we manage child abuse monitoring and allegations in this country. Some of them stem from a debilitating lack of resources and community support. I believe that the upcoming establishment of the long overdue Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse will shed light on a number of the issues that we face in terms of institutional responses to abuse, something that Professor Briggs has a great deal of knowledge on, something that she has campaigned and educated us on for many years. With this in mind, it is critical that the government consults with experts such as Professor Briggs throughout the course of the royal commission.

I would like to take this opportunity to commend Professor Briggs for her tireless work to protect our children and to pay tribute to this living treasure. It is also worth noting that last October Professor Briggs was the author of a book on child protection, on identifying child abuse. I could not go to book launch because I was overseas, but it has been an honour and privilege to work with Freda on child protection issues over the years

Her text on child abuse is a very important work and I note that South Australians as eminent as the Hon. Robyn Layton, a former justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia, praised that book and its contribution in terms of identifying victims of child abuse. We know that there are serious systemic problems in identifying child abuse in this country and that is why Professor Briggs's contribution, after working in the field of child protection tirelessly year after year, decade after decade, has culminated with her book on identifying child abuse and dealing with it in a systemic way. That is why we ought to acknowledge Professor Briggs and her work. She is an iconic South Australian and I hope to be able to make a contribution later this year as the royal commission progresses to reflect on her work. It is also worth reflecting on the support that Professor Briggs has received over the years from the Today Tonight program in South Australia and, in particular, Graham Archer, the producer.

A number of years ago Mr Archer was responsible for producing a series of programs on the abuse of children in state care, and I should disclose that my former senior media adviser, Rohan Wenn, who was a journalist at Today Tonight, was a reporter of a number of those groundbreaking stories at the time. The South Australian government, it would be fair to say, if it did not take those reports seriously, was sceptical about those reports. But as a result of those reports and the work of Mr Archer and Mr Wenn at Today Tonight, together with the work of Professor Briggs, the Mullighan Commission of Inquiry into abuse was established, and that inquiry was a valuable exercise that disclosed many more cases of abuse than Today Tonight thought there were. So, if anything, Today Tonight underestimated the level of abuse out there even though it was criticised at the time for being alarmist. In fact, they were not. They were quite understated in their concerns and, again, Professor Briggs played an important role in providing advice in being able to sift through those allegations.

The consequences of the Mullighan inquiry into abuse of children in state care were quite profound. I believe it has led to a shake-up, and it was also an important healing process. Ted Mullighan was a former justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia. He was a wonderful South Australian and a wonderful human being who, sadly, passed away not so long ago. The work he did was invaluable, but the trigger for that inquiry, the trigger for that healing, the trigger for some closure for some of those victims and some of those victims finally obtaining justice, was as a result of the work of Professor Briggs and others in the media where the media played a key role. There are many South Australians who will be forever grateful to Graham Archer and his team for the work that they did.

Again, that could not have happened without the work of Professor Freda Briggs, and for that, I thank her. I thank her for her service, for her contribution and also for the fact that she has written a significant text on the protection of children that is not only relevant in South Australia but also relevant Australia-wide and internationally, and has a particular resonance in the context of the federal royal commission into abuse.