Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Sydney for her beautiful and important speech. It's been a year since we all joined together to express our most profound sorrow for the suffering and trauma experienced by all victims and survivors of the institutionalised sexual abuse of children. We said sorry for the loss of self-esteem and self-worth. We said sorry to those who were ignored, were disbelieved or were abandoned when they sought help. We said sorry for the pain, sorry for the suffering and sorry for the innocence that was stolen. We said sorry for the loss—a loss that we, not the victims, bear the shame of.

We said sorry to those amongst us who were forcibly removed from country, from their spiritual home, and then subjected to physical and psychological violence. We said sorry for the burden of grief that victims had to carry for so many years. We said sorry to the parents and family members who suffered the distress and trauma of learning that their precious children had been abused by those they trusted to take care of them. We said sorry to those who joined youth groups, the cadet corps and the military apprenticeship schools and then suffered abuse at the hands of those who should have been carers and mentors. We said sorry to those who were fleeing the horrors of postwar Europe and were transported to secular and religious institutions where criminal predators exploited their separation and vulnerability.

We said sorry for the lives irretrievably damaged, sorry for those lives spent in misery or in jail and sorry for the so many lives that have ended in tragedy, often in death by suicide. We said sorry to all those who experienced abuse at the hands of those whose duty it was to care for them, to nurture them and to look after them. And we said sorry that, even though some institutions knew about the crimes committed, some did little or nothing to care for sufferers and that some of those same institutions and their leaders did nothing to bring the perpetrators to justice but instead turned a blind eye or covered up their crimes.

The people I represent in Darwin and Palmerston were not shielded from the atrocities committed. One of the case studies in the commissioners' report was that of the infamous Retta Dixon Home, in Darwin. The Retta Dixon Home was established by the Aborigines Inland Mission, at the Bagot Aboriginal Reserve, in 1946 as a home for 'half-caste children and mothers and a hostel for young half-caste women'. The Aborigines Inland Mission was a non-governmental, interdenominational faith ministry established in 1905. It still operates today, but has changed its name to Australian Indigenous Ministries—or AIM.

Sometime in December 1947, the home was granted a licence by the Australian government to be conducted as an institution for 'the maintenance, custody and care of Aboriginal and half-caste children'. Children stayed at the Retta Dixon Home until they were 18. The home closed in 1980. From 1946 to 1978 various laws permitted the Australian government to take Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children into institutional care. Many of the children who lived at the home now identify themselves as members of the stolen generations. The Australian government was the guardian of many children at the Retta Dixon Home. The Australian government also had a general responsibility to all children in the home, including for their care, welfare, education and advancement, until the time of self-government in 1978. The Australian government was actively involved in activities at the Retta Dixon Home. The home generally housed between 70 and 100 children at any one time. Children were housed in dormitory style accommodation and most children stayed at the home until they were 18 years of age. They attended local schools.

Ten former residents of the Retta Dixon Home gave evidence or provided statements to the royal commission about their experiences of sexual and physical abuse when they were children living at the home. Some of the survivors were there with us last year during the apology. The commission heard of the impacts of the abuse on their lives, including serious effects on their mental health, employment and relationships. They heard of their pain and suffering over a long period and the personal costs associated with dealing with the long-lasting impacts. Most former residents of the home who gave evidence said that they did not report the abuse at the time because they did not understand it to be criminal and later felt too ashamed and frightened to report the abuse. Other witnesses said there was nobody they could report the abuse to.

Children were forcibly taken from their parents and promised a better future, but were instead subjected to repeated abuse over the course of their childhood in what the member for Lingiari has referred to as the cruellest double whammy. They were taken from their actual families and then abused by state-sponsored carers, in some cases. Many of the survivors of child sexual abuse and their families retain deep anger towards those who committed crimes and the institutions that harboured them. They cannot be expected to extend reconciliation and restore trust to those who continue to deny them rights.

We should also acknowledge the work done in the lead-up to the apology. Obviously the apology was a recommendation of the final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The final report was a culmination of five painstaking years for the commissioners and support staff. The findings of the report were horrific. We failed those who suffered, and it is the responsibility of all governments and institutions to do everything they can to ensure that institutional child abuse never happens again.

I said this in my speech last year and I'll say it again: we must do all that is possible to ensure that what the victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse have suffered never happens again. But, of course, it is happening. Somewhere right now in this country, a child is hurting. If you suspect a child is hurting, please act. If you are a perpetrator, get help now, confess now and apologise now. Do not hurt our young people or anyone. There have been too many young lives irreparably scarred. So no more! We must never see the national apology as a mission accomplished. It was a call to action; it was a call to act. But as the Leader of the Opposition said:

… an apology can bring to an end one era and, with hope, begin a better one.

I acknowledge the initiatives being put forward by the government that are steps along that road. The National Office for Child Safety is working on the implementation of the priorities recommended by the royal commission. Since last year, the National Redress Scheme has begun its work to hold institutions to account and to help survivors but not quickly enough, as we just heard from the member for Sydney. Labor joins with the government in urging anyone who thinks they should be a part of that scheme to get on board today. There is a way to go.

In closing, I just want to say to all those who have suffered: a year has passed, but we will never forget everything you went through. We believe you; we continue to believe you, and what happened to you is a shame that our nation will bear for eternity. We must remain vigilant and we must shine a light where that light is required.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 17:11 to 17:12

See this speech in context