Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Next week the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hands down its final report. Will the Prime Minister join me to acknowledge the survivors of child sexual abuse for their courage in giving evidence and thank the royal commissioners and their staff for their efforts to expose responses on child sexual abuse, and, in the nation's parliament, will he join with me in committing to ensuring survivors get the justice and the real redress they deserve?

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. We thank and we honour the courage of the survivors who bravely told their stories to the royal commission. We thank the royal commissioners and their staff for the long hours and the very hard hours—the very emotionally draining hours—that they have spent listening to those stories and comforting the survivors. We honour them and we believe them. That is the most important thing you can say.

I remember, years ago, when Prime Minister Rudd and I made a statement of apology to the survivors of institutional care—'the forgotten Australians', as they are often described. The words they wanted to hear most of all, after lifetimes of being ignored and neglected and pushed away, were that they were believed and that the charities and churches and governments that had done them so much wrong were going to be held to account. Justice, honesty, transparency: that's what the royal commission has been delivering. I want to thank the commissioners and I want to thank, above all, the survivors. We believe you. We love you. We will stand with you.