Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Child sexual abuse is an abhorrent reality faced by millions of people in this country. ABS data tells us that approximately 1.4 million Australians experience sexual abuse as a child. In last year's Personal Safety survey, more than 343,000 men and 1.1 million women across the country reported that they had been sexually abused before the age of 15. The data also tells us that the average age of experiencing sexual abuse is between eight and nine years old. That's the average age for a child experiencing sexual abuse. For Indigenous Australians, the statistics are even worse. Between 2021 and 2022, more than 13,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were under child protection substantiation. That is seven times higher than for non-Indigenous children. I'll say that again: Indigenous children are seven times more likely to be exposed to child abuse.

The reason we know this, the reason we're aware of these terrible facts, is that we have had 22 reports into child abuse and neglect in Indigenous communities since the Bringing them home report in 1997. That's 22 reports outlining the nature of abuse, 22 reports explaining the causes of abuse and 22 reports explaining what we can do about it. That's why the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care had this to say:

Another Royal Commission is not a solution. There have been more than 22 reports into allegations of abuse and neglect in our communities …

We don't need another one. What we do need is action.

Unfortunately for the last nine years we didn't get any action. They did nothing for nine years. What we saw from the Liberals, in government, is that they were asleep at the wheel, and then, in a pattern that has become all too familiar, they go from being asleep at the wheel in government to being backseat drivers in opposition. Well, their record speaks for itself. When they had the opportunity to take action on this issue, when they were in government, what did they do? They cut $13 million from Indigenous legal aid and policy reform programs within months of coming to office in 2013.

When Peter Dutton was the Minister for Health, he cancelled the $700 million National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes—ripped it away. In the infamous 2015 budget the coalition slashed funding by $500 million on a swathe of Indigenous programs: education, Indigenous language, child welfare and legal services. There was a cut of $165 million by then health minister Peter Dutton from Indigenous health programs. He refused to provide ongoing funding to 38 Aboriginal children and family centres. This was the record that they had in office when they had a chance to do something about it. This is what they did when they had the opportunity to put action rather than just words into addressing this extremely serious problem. That's why is it extremely hard to take this proposition from this Leader of the Opposition.

This opposition leader walked out on the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. This opposition leader was lukewarm at best about the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse. This opposition leader has campaigned against the Voice to Parliament that Indigenous people themselves put forward as one of the solutions towards closing the gap. It is difficult to take a proposition from an opposition leader who did nothing while in government, who slashed funding from these adjacent programs, who has campaigned against the aspirations of Indigenous people and who is now demanding an inquiry.

This government is getting on with the job of directly addressing the problem. The Albanese government has committed $262 million specifically to support and protect First Nations women and children who are experiencing family and domestic violence. That is why the government is also working to respond to the recommendations of the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse and to implement the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse. The Albanese government has committed to improving wellbeing— (Time expired)

See this speech in context