Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I start by also acknowledging my good friend the member for Swan, Steve Irons, and the work he has done as a co-patron with me of Care Leavers Australia Network, CLAN, and in raising this issue in the parliament today. I would also like to acknowledge the member for Jagajaga, who, as shadow minister responsible for Labor's response to these issues right now, but also as minister, has been absolutely critical in seeing the apology to the forgotten Australians take place, as it did just over seven years ago today. Indeed, the member for Jagajaga, as minister, was instrumental in seeing the royal commission established. In absentia, I acknowledge Jason Clare, the Member for Blaxland, who is a patron of Care Leavers Australia Network and has been very active in this space. I am a proud patron of CLAN. The work I do in this space is as important as anything I do in this building—as anything I have done in parliamentary life.

I would like to acknowledge Leonie Sheedy and Joanna Penglase, who founded CLAN and, between the two of them, have been amazing in raising this issue. Their determination and their relentlessness, which we are all very familiar with, has taken this from an issue which I did not know about to one which is now very much on the national stage. It was principally their energies which led to the apology to the forgotten Australians back in 2009, and it was principally their energies which led to the former Labor government establishing the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

It is important to say at the outset that the story of those who grew up in orphanages is not all about sexual abuse. There are wider dimensions to that story, but there is no doubt that the sexual abuse that occurred to them as children is a very significant part of the story, as a very significant proportion of people who grew up in orphanages suffered that fate. Like the Member for Jagajaga, I would also like to acknowledge the bravery shown by those people who were prepared to tell their stories to the royal commission. Having met a lot of 'CLANies', as I know the members for Swan and Jagajaga have both done, you realise the extent to which what occurred to them as children now impacts their lives on a daily basis. There is courage involved in being prepared to stand up and tell your story with a degree of publicity—and the fear of not being believed. But, like the member for Jagajaga, I want to make it very clear that what came from the national apology and what came from the royal commission was a statement by this country that we absolutely do believe what they have said and the veracity of it.

But for them telling their stories, we would not now have this as part of the national story and we would not have the responses which we are now debating in this chamber today. In that respect, I would like to acknowledge Vlad Selakovic, who is a constituent of mine and a 'CLANie' who has done fantastic work, and also Anthony Sheedy—Leonie's brother—who passed away a few years ago. He was a constituent of mine and he was incredibly brave in the way he dealt with the lot that he had been given in his life.

Back in January 2015 the royal commission recommended a national redress scheme. That was no surprise because almost from the day I met Leonie she was making it clear how important a national redress scheme was—in part, the compensation that comes from that but, most of all, the acknowledgement that comes with it of what actually did occur. I was really proud that in October last year, through the member for Jagajaga, it was Labor's position to support a national redress scheme and whilst acknowledging the government's announcement, which forms part of this resolution earlier this month, I share the member for Jagajaga's concerns about the fact that what is being proposed is an opt-in scheme. The reality is that for those who experienced this, there was no opt-in. For anyone who has been a victim of child sexual abuse, it is critical that they get the recognition that comes from a redress scheme. Everybody deserves that. This needs to be a genuine national redress scheme, without the opt-in as part of it.

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