Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for enlightening me on what questions I should ask the minister. It is great to have the minister in the chamber and to see him here. He—and I am guessing the member for Jagajaga—will know what sorts of questions I am going to focus on.

Ms Macklin interjecting—

I just heard you talking about and asking the minister about the redress scheme. It is great that the minister used to be part of a government that probably gave the most generous redress scheme in the whole of Australia, the Redress WA scheme. So, Minister, you are part of two governments now that have been part of redress schemes that have been set up. This one is a national redress scheme which, unfortunately, when the apology was done in November 2009—

Ms Macklin interjecting—

It was a long time ago, Jenny. I remember being down at the parliament house in Victoria with you and we worked on the committee together. It is a great memory for the many people who came to Canberra—over 1,000 people visited. It has been part of a journey for them and a journey we have shared as well. It has been very important for them. The sooner we can establish this national redress scheme and make sure it works and has the best outcomes for those people who are, as you call them, survivors who have been through enormous pain during their journey, the better it will be. It was great to be part of that and to be part of the announcement in November last year when I joined with the minister in my home city of Perth as he announced that this government would establish a Commonwealth redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sex abuse. He invited the states and territories and non-government institutes to join the Commonwealth scheme to deliver redress to survivors. The member for Jagajaga and I have spoken about our efforts to try and get the states to come onboard. I can inform the member for Jagajaga that I wrote to the new Premier of Western Australia four weeks ago and, unfortunately, have not heard back from him at all—not one peep. It is a bit unfortunate because I know Minister Sue Ellery was very vocal and very supportive of a national redress scheme. So I am looking forward to a positive response from the new Premier.

In my maiden speech in the House, which was almost 10 years ago now, I said I wanted to bring the focus onto this national issue. Since then I have been advocating for a redress scheme with members on both sides of the House so that institutions who inflicted this abuse can be held accountable for what they did to far too many of this nation's children. In 2012, I welcomed an announcement by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard that a royal commission inquiry would be held into institutional responses to child sex abuse, which myself and members on the other side of the chamber called for. In March 2017, the royal commission had its 57th and final public hearing. Since its commencement, the commission has held public hearings in every state and territory and identified more than 4,000 institutions where abuse took place. More than 6,500 victims who gave private evidence said more than one person had abused them. I would like to take this opportunity to, again, acknowledge the victims and the survivors and thank each and every one of them who gave evidence. I know how traumatic it would have been for many of those people who did that.

It is very difficult for those who have suffered emotional, physical and sexual abuse or trauma to relive their abuse when telling their personal stories. When I have joined with the member for Jagajaga and we have met with survivors, I found they had an underlying current within their personality of anger, which comes from the time and the abuse they received while they were in these institutions. Without their courage to share their experiences, without their bravery in having to explain their ordeals, a scheme like this would never have been established.

The Turnbull government listened to the survivors, and I know the minister and the Prime Minister will probably be sick of me beating a pathway to their doors with regard to this issue, but, finally, it was announced. We are demonstrating national leadership in following the royal commission's recommendations by developing a best practice, simple and supportive redress scheme for survivors. The Commonwealth will lead the development of the scheme and seek corporation of the states and territories to create a nationally consistent approach to redress. I know some of the institutions and charities have come onboard, and we can only hope that some of the states who are holding out will come onboard. Minister, the budget includes funding to establish this Commonwealth redress scheme. Can you provide detail on the package and how a Commonwealth redress scheme will actually help the survivors of abuse in Commonwealth institutions, not only in redress but also through the services they need and require to help them deal with the abuse that they have had over many years?

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