Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

It's been seven years since former Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the creation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. That happened on 12 November 2012. It was one of the last acts of the Gillard government. It's been two years since the findings of the royal commission were handed down, and it's been a year since our Prime Minister gave the national apology. For many victims of child sexual abuse in institutional care, of course, the sentence is a never-ending one.

The most important job we have as human beings is to protect the next generation. There really is no more important an obligation for any of us in this building or for any Australian. The royal commission was a stunning insight into just how poorly we had done. None of us can ever right the wrongs inflicted on too many of our nation's children, but the commission's 409 recommendations propose significant reforms to ensure that children in the care of any Australian institution can be safe.

We saw some phenomenal humans, some incredibly brave Australians, give evidence to the royal commission, and I want to thank them for that bravery. Without their bravery, the royal commission could not have done its work. One man who contacted me was Robbie Gambley. He was not much older than a child when he was groomed by his science teacher and eventually forced to live with him. He was humiliated on a daily basis and assaulted every day at school. Robbie waited for more than 40 years to hear those all-important words: 'We believe you.' He sent me this photograph of himself as just a child, with his horse. He loved the horse and he told me that, for him, this photo represented the last innocent photo of his childhood. I kept this photo by my desk while we were doing the work relating to the royal commission, because I wanted to be reminded that every one of those thousands of people who gave evidence had been a child, just like this child, who'd had their innocence stolen. Robbie went on to write a book about his childhood. He made me this horse. This is a beautiful sculpture, one of many that he has made, to remind me of the horse that was such a companion for him in his childhood. He was so phenomenally brave to share his story, not just with the royal commission but with the media as well.

Many of us in this place, I know, would be familiar with the Care Leavers Australasia Network, CLAN, and the phenomenal work of Leonie Sheedy and all of those who've worked with Leonie over very many years. We know the support that CLAN has given survivors of childhood sex abuse, helping them come forward, helping them tell their stories, and helping them by picking up the pieces once they've done so. The retraumatisation of giving evidence to the royal commission or coming forward after years of keeping a secret has really taken its toll on so many, and CLAN has been there through all of it. Leonie has given so much personally.

I'm very pleased to have been asked to be one of CLAN's parliamentary patrons, because their resolve and their strength are continually inspiring. I visited their Australian Orphanage Museum, which provides an incredible permanent monument.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16:44 to 16:55

In continuation, I want to mention the Australian Orphanage Museum, which the Clannies have set up with all the incredibly touching artefacts that care leavers had given to the museum. I also wanted to mention my dear friend Pamella Vernon, who, with the Alliance for Forgotten Australians—the survivors of institutional care in Australia—has also been a fierce advocate for those who were abused in institutional care.

Of course, not everyone who was in an institution was sexually abused, but too many were. There are so many other individuals, like Carl Beauchamp, who wrote the phenomenal book Come Home, You Little Bastards, which is about growing up in the inner-Sydney area—Erskineville, Newtown, Glebe—and ending up in the Charlton Boys Home. Carl tells the story of the shocking abuse that he and his brother Neville suffered in different homes. The amazing thing about this book is not only that it details this shocking abuse but also that Carl comes through it intact and loving. He is the most generous, beautiful man, and that shows through the book. I urge people to read it.

I say again to the commissioners of the royal commission, led by the chair of the royal commission, the Hon. Justice Peter McClellan, the 680 members of the royal commission staff who worked with such dedication over five years, Prime Minister Gillard, who I already mentioned, Minister Jenny Macklin, all of those involved in the royal commission and, most particularly, to those who gave evidence: we are absolutely indebted to you.

I would say that redress is a vital recommendation from the royal commission. The Redress Scheme was enacted too slowly and it is operating too slowly now. Only 600 payments out of more than 5,000 applications have been processed as of last month—just over 10 per cent. That's just too slow. Institutions that have not yet signed up should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.

When we look at the abuse that occurred in those institutions to thousands of children over many, many years, surely one of the lessons that we must learn from this is that we need to do better at protecting children. When a child says, 'I don't feel safe,' or, 'I am not safe,' or reports abuse, we should believe that child. We must investigate and take the complaint seriously.

But it is not just Australian children that we have a responsibility to protect. I was shocked last week to hear of Westpac's 23 million violations of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, including allegations of 3,057 money transfers following through bank systems to pay for suspected child sexual exploitation, including in the Philippines. Of course, no Australian business should be facilitating child abuse and child exploitation overseas. The scale of this problem is shocking. In 2014, 250 Australian child-sex offenders who went to the Philippines alone were charged by the Australian Federal Police. They were all types of people. There was a 51-year-old Australian businessman from Sydney who was sentenced to three life sentences in prison for operating a child cybersex den and exploiting children in the Philippines; a medical supplies salesman who sexually exploited 47 boys in South-East Asia and Australia; a 61-year-old man from Perth—a father of five and former train driver—who groomed, molested and attempted to rape a girl over the course of 2½ years, from when she was about five years old; a 63-year-old grandfather; and a 39-year-old woman from Sydney who was involved with live-streaming a 12-year-old's abuse on social media. How many weren't caught? Australians are deliberately flying to where poverty and corruption make people desperate and vulnerable. Frankly, it is beyond me what sort of person does this.

It's not just the physical, real-world abuse of children that we need to stop; it's also online child exploitation and child pornography. Every time someone looks at child pornography, they incentivise and monetise the abuse and even the murder of children. Reports of child sexual abuse material online have increased 10,000 per cent since 2004—10,000 per cent since 2004! Last year, tech companies reported over 45 million online photos and videos of children being sexually abused—more than double what they found in the previous year. The authorities tell us that offences are increasingly becoming more sophisticated, through the use of networks to distribute material, encryption and online access. The fact that this abuse happens overseas should not protect paedophiles. The fact that you are clever at covering your tracks on computers and with bank transfers shouldn't protect you.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the police and the child protection workers that save children from abuse in Australia and around the world. For too long we turned a blind eye to the abuse that was happening in Australia. Let it not be said that we did the same to child abuse happening overseas perpetrated by Australians and facilitated by Australian businesses. We must do better than we've done in the past to protect children—our most important responsibility.

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