Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I take the interjection again and note this government's lack of action on anything to do with this, which appeared in 2015, including establishment of a royal commission. It took the Turnbull government 16 long months—including the member at the table, who is continuing to interject. It took you 16 months to do anything, to even make a response. What an embarrassing joke to the most vulnerable people in our community. This government rejected a royal commission and accepted only one of the Senate inquiry's 30 recommendations—just one. In March this year, Four Corners again revealed further cases of sexual and physical abuse being inflicted on people with a disability. Thank God for the ABC.

It is outrageous that perpetrators have not been prosecuted and, worse, may still be working in the disability sector. According to the Department of Social Services' own national abuse and neglect hotline, a total of 891 cases were cited between July 2012 and December 2014, with systemic abuse at 23 per cent, physical abuse at 16 per cent, psychological abuse also at 16 per cent, and neglect at 15 per cent being the highest of the reported incidents. The cases of violence and abuse that we know about are just the tip of the iceberg. Disabled People's Organisations Australia say that people with a disability experience far higher rates of violence than anybody else in the community. As I noted, they estimate that 90 per cent of women with an intellectual disability have been sexually assaulted in their lives, with 60 per cent of these people falling victim to abuse before the age of 18. Tragically, people with a disability are often treated as unreliable witnesses and, as in the cases we have outlined, perpetrators have not been charged and continue to work with vulnerable people. I am proud of my lived experience with my son with a disability, but I would not be proud to have these things perpetrated against him. The continued abuse of Australians with a disability by people who are meant to care for them demands nothing less than a royal commission. Only a royal commission has the weight, authority and investigative powers to examine these horrific accounts of abuse and violence against people with a disability.

Disability organisations have been pushing for a national inquiry. People who live in institutions and residential settings are particularly susceptible to violence and assaults from staff and other residents. The violence is very difficult to detect, investigate and prosecute. Imagine being disabled and being in the hands of your rapist day after day. I want to repeat that proposition to the chamber: just imagine what it must be like to be in the hands of your rapist day after day. Clearly, there are significant structural flaws in the systems designed to protect vulnerable people from predators—the failure of our legal systems to seek justice for victims and the absolute failure of governments to ensure the appropriate safeguards are in place. This is not the fault of one person, organisation or government.

Ms Banks interjecting—

These failings reflect on us all, including you, member for Chisholm. We cannot erase the pain and suffering that so many have already experienced. However, a royal commission will at least give people with a disability, their families, like me, and carers, like the member for Fisher, the opportunity to be able to tell their stories and seek justice. They deserve a royal commission and no less and we absolutely owe it to them. I call on the Prime Minister to do the right thing: give vulnerable people who have suffered abuse a voice. Once and for all, give them justice.

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