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

This evening I want to brief the House on moving forward after the apology to the care leavers, forgotten Australians and child migrants last week, who I will now refer to as the ‘remembered Australians’. I also take this opportunity to report back to the House that the majority of responses I have had from the remembered Australians to the apology were positive and they heard what they wanted to hear. Many have mentioned that Mr Turnbull’s words ‘We believe you’ were significant to them. In all, it was a positive and emotional day, but we must move forward.

In the Senate report titled Lost Innocents and Forgotten Australians Revisited, which was tabled in June 2009, there are 16 recommendations. I would now like to discuss some of the recommendations, with the idea of moving forward for our fellow remembered Australians. After last week we have now dealt with recommendations 1 and 2 of the report. I would encourage the Prime Minister to complete recommendation 3, which states that the Prime Minister should write to the churches and charities that ran the institutions where this systematic abuse existed and request they provide formal statements, in particular on the issues of an apology, redress and provision of service to care leavers.

The report recommendations frequently refer to recommendations in the Senate’s Forgotten Australians report, tabled in August 2004, and recommendation 6 from that report is highlighted on the Care Leavers Australia Network website. The recommendation states:

That the Commonwealth Government establish and manage a national reparations fund for victims of institutions and out-of-home care settings.

I support this recommendation and call on the government to establish this national fund as early as possible with financial input from the state governments, churches and charities. It is time we stood up as a society and dealt with this issue.

I said in my speech last week that we can now only be judged as a society in how we deal with these wrongs and the people who suffered them. We need to help the remembered Australians rebuild what is left of their lives, as we certainly failed in the construction of them. The four areas that need to be dealt with are redress, including the punishment of the perpetrators of the abuse; acknowledgment and a sincere apology, which has now been achieved; compensation; and services including a national register. Part of the redress problem the remembered Australians face is that all Australian states have a statute of limitations. Generally the law allows for an extension of time to be granted but these allowances are extremely restrictive. Applications for extensions are expensive and there is no guarantee that leave will be granted to issue proceedings.

The problem with the statute of limitations for remembered Australians is a real issue that we need to deal with. On the one hand this parliament has just officially acknowledged that the stories of physical and sexual abuse and neglect are real, but legally there is little avenue for this recognition to be pursued now. For years, when these people, our fellow Australians, made complaints or tried to pursue the perpetrators, they could not do so because no-one believed their stories. How could they start proceedings sanely, or with a purpose, when no-one believed them? Given the complexities of pursuing claims against the state, the churches and the charities, and the arguments the defendants use—they say they were not responsible for the conduct of their employees—our remembered Australians face an enormous task.

When you consider the frailty and state of mind of these survivors—and survivors is what they are; they are survivors of systematic abuse overseen by the state, the churches and the charities—what hope do they ever have of seeking redress? We need a change of heart and mindset by all those involved. Considering that these state licensed institutions were actually paid by the state to look after these children, I would be calling for a refund. We should seek a refund for providing services under false pretences, for providing a product that did not work. Maybe the institutions could be pursued under the Trade Practices Act. I am not sure whether there is a statute of limitations in this area.

Until we get a change of heart from the churches and the charities and they approach this with some truth and transparency—like the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition did with the apology—how can we hold our heads up as a society? I call on all parties involved to step up to the plate, confess your sins and become part of the solution. Become part of the journey that repairs and rebuilds the lives of the remembered Australians. Be a part of this new episode that can return the dignity and sanity of these people. Let them know their country loves them and then maybe you and the churches and the charities can also rid yourselves of the perception of being institutions who failed and abused these children and now continue to hide from the responsibility of those tragic failings. I call on the government to proceed on these issues as soon as possible—and it is good to see that the member for Corio is in the House.