Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Monday, 16 November I began my day by going to three separate places to collect and escort to parliament, very proudly, Debra Lowe and her young son, Chris; Graham Wilson; Tina Coutts; and Barbara Lane and her young daughters, Sarah and Danielle. Ian Mackay, our driver, was lovely, showing these forgotten Australians the respect and care they so deserved, particularly on Monday.

I did it in two shifts—everyone had luggage, and I teased Graham for having the biggest suitcase. I said to him, ‘I can go around the world with one four times smaller,’ but it was all in good spirit, despite all the feelings that the day had evoked, would evoke and would continue to evoke. It is something that forgotten Australians and child migrants had long asked for. It is a shame that they had to ask for it, but that is how it is sometimes when we are dealing with what was, as the Prime Minister called it, ‘an ugly chapter in our history’.

But Monday was not the day to dwell on some of that. The Prime Minister said that an apology would be given some time back, and for that I say thank you on behalf of all the forgotten Australians, particularly in my area. I ran into Roger Green and his wife Dorothy, constituents of mine, while we were waiting in the queue. So anxious was everybody to get inside the Great Hall for the apology, and so anxious were they to get down the front and be there, that a queue formed. There was morning tea and all of the things happening and people talking, but they just wanted to get inside. I stood in that queue with them, and it was just wonderful meeting so many different people and having snippets of conversation with all sorts of people in the queue and sharing experiences as well.

My electorate office manager, Carmel Cook, was also there helping but her father was a child migrant so she was feeling a whole lot of feelings, as everybody else was, but at the same time helping to look after other people, along with me. It was a really emotional day on Monday, and it was a very draining day. I know it brought me to tears, and I can only in a very small way comprehend how the forgotten Australians and the child migrants and their families were feeling sitting there on that day.

There were some people who desperately wanted to come and be here on Monday. Other people did not want to come—for all sorts of reasons. I have people in my electorate who are really ambivalent about it, and one friend in particular. It brought up feelings for him. He wanted to see all of the recommendations out of the two Senate reports implemented straightaway with the apology. The apology was one of those, and from where I sit I said to everyone, ‘I would love it to be perfect. I would love it if we could do the absolute Rolls-Royce treatment, but that will not happen on the day. The fact is that we are doing the apology, and it is a good start.’ That was the overwhelming feeling for everybody there and for people around the country on this particular day. People left feeling that at last they were believed, they were listened to, they were included and they were able, for some, to start to heal.

I am not speaking for everybody because everybody’s experience is different. But how can a young child not be damaged in some way by being in institutions where, as the Prime Minister said, it was just loveless: there was no love, there was no nurturing and there was no caring. We heard stories about people waiting and looking at gates, waiting for people to come back, but there was nobody coming to rescue them, suffering as they did. They did not have one adult in their lives who could protect them and who could believe them. If you grow up without that trust and nurturing, it must be incredibly challenging and difficult to find your place in society, to feel included and then go on yourself to try and parent and have relationships.

I felt really privileged to be sitting with Tina, Graham, Deb, Barbara, Carmel, Chris, Sarah and Danielle and another man whom we met there. He was alone—it was clear that he was alone—and we asked him to join us, which he did. And I have had a lovely follow-up email from him. I then moved into the House where Minister Macklin moved a formal motion of apology—the one to which I am currently speaking. She spoke very passionately, as did other speakers, about the forgotten Australians. I note here the very honourable member for Swan, Steve Irons, himself a forgotten Australian, who spoke to the motion. He spoke to and about his brother, who was sitting in the public gallery, and said that they had been separated for over 30 years. It was very moving. The honourable member for Swan is such a nice person and so liked, and it was nice to have the opportunity to hear him speak. There were people in the gallery from CLAN, Forgotten Australians and the Child Migrant Trust. Also present in the gallery was former Senator Andrew Murray. Many people, of course, have been involved in recognising the forgotten Australians and child migrants but Andrew Murray, more than any other person in this place, deserves special mention for the work that he did in the Senate. Senators Jan McLucas and Claire Moore also did a lot of work in this area. It was a very moving time.

I have been having quite a few meetings in my electorate office with local forgotten Australians—I hope they are now called ‘remembered Australians’ after Monday. We have sat around the table and talked about the reports and what should happen. Obviously, we have talked about things like reparation and compensation—all of the things that should happen. My personal belief is that reparation has to happen—that is, reparation in the broad sense. This covers a whole range of things that can be done to provide care and support for people who have suffered abuse. That might cover compensation but it should cover things like decent access to health care. A lot of the forgotten Australians whom I know do have poor health status, and that can be physical, emotional and dental. Dental health is a big issue for many of these people because they never went to a dentist. They did not receive that sort of treatment. There are also other issues to do with the health of these people, such as not knowing where they come from—their genetic history—and things like that.

At one of the meetings in my office, which was quite an enjoyable meeting, I asked people, ‘If you could get money, how much would you want?’ because what has happened to them is not something that can quantified. The mean that people came up with was $500,000 to get a house and a car. That gives an idea of some of the prices for houses in my area—although one person said $300,000. Some people might say, ‘You’re dreaming’, but it is okay to dream because, if you do not dream, a lot does not happen. It was good to discuss that.

I was pleased to see that people who were forgotten Australians will be treated specially in aged care and that care leavers will recognise their special needs. Nicholas Kostyn, who comes from my area, said that that was one of the key recommendations that needed to be taken up because people who have been institutionalised will experience a whole lot of feelings, as you can imagine, if they have to go into another institution—and it does not matter at what age. So I was pleased to see that recommendation taken up.

The National Find and Connect Service is a very important initiative, and the ability for people to record their stories is also great. My local newspapers, the Northern Star and the Daily Examiner, have been actively covering this issue in a very comprehensive way. This morning, the local 2LM radio was talking about the forgotten Australians. Everybody is interested in them. The media want to cover this history; they want to talk about it; and they want to know the stories of the people involved. The key issue that has come out of this is that it should not happen again. I agree.

When we were talking about this, another thing I said was, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice’—again, dreaming—‘if a forgotten Australian could have a gold card that gave them access to the services that they needed?’ We often talk about counselling but they need a lot more than that. They could access those services individually as they needed them and not through a particular service provision or a model or something like that. One man I spoke to this morning was an older man who never thought that he needed counselling. He is just going to counselling now and he said how helpful it has been over the last few years. People need it at different times in their lives for different reasons. Barbara Lane asked me the other day, ‘You will not forget to mention the gold card when you speak?’ I said, ‘No. I will make sure I put it on the public record.’ I have done that now.

I also say thank you to Penny Sharpe, the Parliamentary Secretary for Transport in New South Wales. I put in a request to her office for rail tickets. I know that Minister Macklin’s office put in that request as well. They said yes immediately. So a lot of people were able to get here in that way, including some people from my area. Everybody who was asked said yes and helped out wherever they could.

I also got a beautiful card from the people who came down with me the other day. I said I would mention that. One of them, Barbara Lane, wrote a poem, and I am going to read that poem now, Mr Deputy Speaker, with your indulgence. She wrote at the top of the poem, ‘To Janelle, many thanks for all you have done—Barbara.’ It is called ‘Remembering Osler House:

Screams echo down the hallway of my mind, as they did the cells and hallways of that house of endless horrors, through the years.

My body still remembers all the shame of what I witnessed,

And the corrosive, all-pervasive acid-urine smell of fears.

I was thirteen years.

The sobbing, wailing background noise that ate away the night;

The soul-shattering, too-sudden … cessation of the screams,

These joined the tortured memories I buried in the abyss,

To carve away my childhood, brutally, as they stole my dreams.

I was only thirteen.

The milling, naked bodies in the showers with no doors;

The excrement and sanitary pads, my first time, on the floors.

Betrayed by my own government, the state that had my care,

In an adult asylum for the criminally insane; I’d pulled out all my hair.

I was only a child.

Hollow-eyed people, shock-treatment blank, helpless,

And no longer knowing their names;

The intellectually disabled and terrified children

Still haunt in their drugged, bruised and bare-naked shame.

I was thirteen years old.

By Barbara Lane

I worked in that mental institution. I know what it was like. There were children in there who did not have a mental illness. There are children who were forgotten Australians. There were all sorts of people dumped into that place. It was like the house of horrors. If you have ever read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, you would recognise it. Even without knowing anything about it, when I read the first line I recognised it. I worked there when I was quite young. I was nearly 17 when I went to work there. I could not abide it. It was cruel. It was inhumane. That poem evokes memories for me.

Some of those children, who are now adults, came to me some years ago to see if I was prepared to give some evidence in cases that they wanted to run against the government. I said, ‘I will, but I am not sure how helpful I can be as a witness for particular people for particular incidents that happened.’ Fancy ending up somewhere for the mentally ill. The way the mentally ill who were there were treated is a whole other chapter.

I would like to finish by just saying how wonderful the day was. It was long overdue. Isn’t it good when you do something that is the right thing? One of my forgotten Australians said to me, ‘It was really nice to hear the good words from Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull on the day.’ (Time expired)

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