Andrew Gee (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister outline to the House the significance of yesterday's national apology to the victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse? How is the government acting on the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to give practical meaning to this apology?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calare for his question on this very important issue. I want to thank all those survivors who attended here yesterday, not just in this building but outside of this place, on the lawns, where we had the opportunity to meet them and listen to their stories, and when they came back into this parliament and the offices of members and recounted their stories. I want to thank all members of this chamber for the welcome that they provided to all of the survivors, and all Australians for their solidarity in standing by those survivors and their families. It was a very, very moving day.

But an apology without action, as we said yesterday, is just a piece of paper, and the concrete action that is necessary is implementing the recommendations of the royal commission. One hundred and four of those 122 recommendations—the ones directed towards the Commonwealth—are being worked through, and the 18 further recommendations are being worked through with the states and territories. The National Redress Scheme has commenced. The National Office for Child Safety was stood up in July, and, as I said yesterday, it will report directly to me, not just to the Department of Social Services. I'll be assisted in that role not only by the Minister for Social Services but by the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, who has done an outstanding job in working with the advisory group and working towards the national apology yesterday, and I want to add my thanks to the assistant minister. The national database to ensure higher standards for child protection is underway, working with the states and territories.

Survivors who are anxious about going into institutional aged care, as a result of their most horrific experiences when they were last in institutions, is an important issue that has been raised. It is one that we'll be working on closely with the Minister for Senior Australians and Aged Care but also looking to the royal commission into aged care that we have announced to be sensitive to that issue and the solutions that need to be made available. We are establishing the national centre for excellence to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse, and removing the stigma so the stories can be told and so the understanding can be generated. There is the national museum, which we announced support for, which will be working with survivors in particular so that the stories can be told and we will never again turn our backs on the shame that is rightfully sitting across our country, a stain on our country. That national museum will be a place for reflection, for learning, for understanding. I would add that it will draw on excellent proposals from the care leaders, who have a particular proposal relating to an old orphanage building. That is what inspired the idea for this museum, and I want to thank the CLAN representatives for bringing that forward.

There were many people yesterday who I know felt they weren't recognised. If I can have indulgence on this one point, I want to recognise those in our defence forces who also suffered sexual abuse. I want to acknowledge them here today. I particularly want to thank the member for Dunkley for bringing that to my attention and, particularly in this place, acknowledge their suffering as well.

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

I rise to associate myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister. It was a very emotional day. As the Prime Minister and I discussed in the Great Hall, the level of emotion and hurt and all of the conflicting emotions was almost physical; you could almost feel it against your skin. We appreciate the attendance of all the survivors and victims and all those who came to hear the apology. That was a very big compliment that these people paid to this parliament, having been let down by people in power all their lives. To come here and trust us to apologise was, at the very least, remarkable. We acknowledge that too many people didn't survive or weren't able to be there yesterday. We also acknowledge that actions, not words, are what people want. We promise not to second-guess the royal commission; it's the best set of recommendations, the best set of proposals. Especially for those dying and very ill the moment, we need to do everything to speed up redress.