Linda Burney (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Preventing Family Violence) Share this | Hansard source

Can I recognise colleagues from all sides of the political aisle who have spoken in this debate, in particular, my dear friend Ken Wyatt, who spoke just then, as well as many others. Throughout my life, I have been very deeply involved in a number of apologies. I was here as the Director General of the New South Wales Department of Aboriginal Affairs when Kevin Rudd, in 2008, gave the apology to the stolen generations. I was part of the reconciliation council during the special commission that led to that recommendation. I was in this place when I think the Prime Minister of the day, Ms Julia Gillard, made the apology to the forgotten Australians. I was also the Minister for Community Services in New South Wales and had the responsibility and leadership for organising the apology in New South Wales to the forgotten Australians. Of course, yesterday, I was here in this House, incredibly humbled, as we all were, to participate in the apology to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

I think the most important thing that I would like to say in this debate today—and I'm sure other people have done this already—is that it is not just about those individuals who were directly affected by the terrible actions and policies during the stolen generations; it is also about the intergenerational trauma, and that needs to be focused on as well. Perhaps many of the people we saw yesterday were older people, as we did see with the stolen generations. And many of them have passed on. It is not just the pain of those individuals; it is actually the intergenerational effects of those policies and actions which we must also be most mindful of. There is a group who was not mentioned yesterday, but I would like to mention them today—the child migrants. Many children came here from the British Isles as a result of World War II. They were caught up in shocking situations, and so they should also be recognised as part of this cohort—which is a very corporate word to describe the group of people whom we apologised to yesterday.

As other members have said in this House, we join with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the most heartfelt of apologies. In so doing, we acknowledge the terrible evils, the breach of trust and the systemic failings committed by the very powers—governments and religious and social institutions—that were entrusted to care for and look after these children. We saw many adults yesterday, but we must remember them as children and also remember their children. I want to particularly acknowledge—I won't say their names, because I have not sought their permission—the mother and daughter who experienced these horrors and who attended the apology yesterday from the electorate of Barton. To those two extraordinary people, I hope that it was healing and that it did help. We know that for too long your pleas were ignored. We also know that the horrors were hidden away and the abusers were moved from place to place. Absolutely outrageous behaviour by people in powerful positions, who may have not been abusers themselves, but, certainly in my eyes, were as guilty as those that were abusing because they knew what was going on and covered up those horrors. I'm sure the member for Newcastle will speak about this. No apology can ever repair the pain and suffering inflicted. I know that for many there are wounds that will never heal for them and their families.

It's also clear that these crimes cannot go unacknowledged, and that is what this apology has done: acknowledged and paid honour to the stories that many have come forward with. People have spoken about Leonie Sheedy and Chrissie Foster and many others, but every single person—whether they came to the parliament yesterday, whether they have decided to be part of the redress scheme, whether they have said an apology isn't good enough and they're going to take their chances in the courts is really not the issue. For me, the issue is that finally, out of all those letters, all those emails, all those private sessions, all those public hearings, all those referrals and all of the callings to account of the authorities, we saw thousands of brave and courageous individuals sharing thousands of brave and courageous conversations—and, as the member for Lindsay said, probably for the first time in their lives.

I do want to acknowledge the former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the former Attorney-General Nicola Roxon and the member for Jagajaga, Jenny Macklin, in advancing these reforms. They are three remarkable women in the public life of this country.

This apology cannot mark the end. It marks a new beginning. It is incredibly important that we do remind ourselves that sexual abuse does not discriminate: not only does it affect the individual, but also friends, family and subsequent generations. I want to say very, very clearly, as others have said, that we can't be naive about this. As the shadow minister for families and social services and as a previous New South Wales Minister for Community Services, I know that most of the abuse that happens in this country happens behind closed doors, in the homes of children who are still experiencing these horrors.

It is important also to recognise the commissioners who were involved—it must have been horrendously difficult—and the brave people who came forward. We cannot undo what's happened. It can't be undone. But it can be acknowledged, and that's what apologies are about, as the member for Hasluck has said.

And I do want to say in the last couple of minutes of my participation in this particular debate—and this is also from personal experience—in the late eighties in Australia we had a royal commission into Indigenous deaths in custody. You would remember that, all of you, very well. Unfortunately, the recommendations of deaths in custody royal commission were cherrypicked terribly by both federal and state governments. Perhaps if they hadn't been cherrypicked, we would not see the level of incarceration of Aboriginal people in the adult prison system or juvenile justice system today. So let us commit ourselves in this parliament, and I think the Prime Minister has articulated this, that this royal commission is not cherrypicked so that only recommendations that are convenient, cheap and easy are undertaken. We have to see it in its entirety and it must be dealt with in its entirety, otherwise this horror will continue, and this horror will be another generation of young people that are abused in institutional care. Institutional care and child protection should be about intervention, and early intervention, not dealing with it when those children have gone over a cliff.

So, once again, I just say an enormous thank you to all of those who participated, the people who helped organise, the people who have spoken in this debate. But, most importantly, I thank the people who suffered these horrors at the hands of people they thought they could trust.

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