Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to start by reading some remarkable words:

You were abandoned and betrayed by governments, churches and charities. ... as government ministers and bishops and chairmen of charity committees congratulated themselves on their generosity and kindness, too many of you were left in the care of people who abused you, who beat you, who raped you, who neglected you cruelly. ... Today I want you to know we admire you, we believe you, we love you.

These words are beautiful words, but they are not my words. They were words uttered in the giving of the apology to the forgotten Australians by the now Prime Minister of Australia. These words and the sentiment in them underpinned the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which a year ago this week recommended redress for people who had suffered in this way. But how can it be that a person who was so eloquent and powerful then is so vacant and powerless now while occupying the position of the Prime Minister of Australia? The prime ministership is an office not just to be occupied; it is an office in which to act, and yet this Prime Minister is missing in action. I am proud that Labor has committed to providing redress to the forgotten Australians, but I hope we are denied this opportunity by the government acting now, because now is the time.