Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) | Link to this | Hansard source

Last year an eight-year-old Tasmanian girl was allegedly sexually abused, repeatedly, by a boy she knew at school. The abuse happened on school property where the teachers wouldn't see it. The girl has intellectual disabilities, which made her especially vulnerable.

Here's the thing. We say to our young people in Australia: 'If you've been abused, speak out, tell an adult and trust a grown-up, because we're here to protect you.' This little girl—and I'm going to call her Rose, to protect her identity—she did that. She spoke up. After months of abuse, she worked up the courage to tell her mum what was happening. She did the right thing.

Her mum, who I'll call Elaine, did the right thing too. When she found out what happened, she did everything possible to keep Rose and her brother safe. She raised the allegations with the school, with state police, with state and federal Labor members, with the former state education minister and the current education minister, and with the Deputy Premier and the Premier of Tasmania. Literally, she has gone to everyone she can possibly think of, asking for help. What a mother lion! Honestly, you could not find a mum who does a better job of fiercely advocating for her children.

There's nothing more that Elaine could possibly do to fix this situation for Rose and her brother. Elaine needs the people in the government to stand up and do something. She has known that for months. She has told them she needs them to step up and do something, but here we are 12 months later, and Elaine and her kids are homeless. They are couch-surfing. They have no stability and no safety. Elaine is sleeping on the floor so the kids can have a bed. She had to quit her job to homeschool her children. She's living on a carer's payment from Centrelink. They have nothing. They are completely stuck. This is what we do to our victims in Tasmania. This is how we treat them. This is what the police and the government people do. The schools sit in denial, saying there's no abuse going on in their schools. Elaine can't get bond together to get a private rental. Even if she could, she's not working and isn't going to get approval for a lease. She can't go back to work until the kids have a school to go to, and they are not going back to a school where Rose was abused. That is completely unacceptable. They can't go to school because until they find a house they don't know what school they're going to be going to. They've got to have the house before they can put the kids into school, because they've already gone through enough trauma.

Elaine and her family are stuck in a classic catch-22, and the only people who can help them are in the state government. But for 12 months now there has been absolutely nothing from the Liberal state government. I'm talking about a young lady who has been abused in a public school in Tasmania, and politicians down there know what's going on. I watch you fighting with each other in state parliament over abuse matters, but apparently you couldn't give a stuff about this young girl. You don't give a stuff about her. How bloody shameful it is of the state parliament in Tasmania today! You are shameful.

While Elaine's kids wait, their mental health is going down the drain. They've had years of disruption. The kids are having nightmares. They check the locks every night before they go to sleep. No child in Australia should feel that they need to do that. No child should be going to sleep wondering if they are safe. Don't get me wrong: Elaine's daughter, Rose, is bloody brave and bloody strong. But we're asking too much of a girl who hasn't even hit her teens. We never should have made her wait this long to get to a safe place to live.

I've got to be honest: I'm at my wits' end. I cannot believe we're talking about all this abuse going on with kids and the sexual abuse going on up here, and they're fighting over it and throwing abuse at each other down in state parliament, but nobody seems to give a stuff about this young lady—this young girl who has been abused at a public school in the state of Tasmania. I've been talking on this for months now. I'm banging my head up against a brick wall. Everywhere are roadblocks, bureaucracy, government cover-up and government incompetence at its best, over abuse. I cannot tell you, Premier Gutwein—from one person to another, as someone I had so much respect for—how disappointed I am in you today. Frankly, I find you bloody shameful.

I am asking for Elaine and her kids. All they need is a house. All they need is a safe place to live so they can move on with their lives. This is how bad things are with social housing in this country: a kid gets raped at school, and the state government can't stop the family from becoming homeless. It's not good enough. The victim gets punished and the boy who raped the girl is running around, with no questions asked. God only knows if anybody else has been raped at this school, because we're all playing cover-up in Tasmania, aren't we? Have there been any more at that school? As a mother, I'm this far from naming that school. My worry is this: if my children were going to that school, I would want to know whether one of them had been raped—God forbid—while you were playing cover-up.

I've been told the department of housing doesn't have a single spare property in Tasmania to put them into—not one. And this has been going on for months. It just goes to show how bad things have become in our state. You can be travelling along as a normal family, working hard and trying to do the right thing, and all it takes is one horrible thing to up-end your life—one person who takes advantage of your children, one person who is filth, and everything turns upside down.

It's up to the state government to protect people when they're down on their luck. That's how things are done in Australia. We expect everyone to get on and work hard and give back to their neighbourhood, but, when someone falls on tough times, there has to be a net to catch them. We don't let people fall through the cracks through no fault of their own. That's not the Australian way.

I don't know why the Tasmanian government doesn't get that, but quite frankly, I find you appalling. You've known about this, housing commissioner and housing minister. Once again, it's an appalling effort from both of you. You are shameful. Every one of you has said, 'Not my problem, Jacqui.' Well, it's your bloody problem now. You don't want me back up here in August starting to name a few things, a few people and that school. This is your warning. You get this fixed, because the next time I stand up in here I'm going to let loose. I'll use my privilege for this family. It is enough. I will use it as a mother, knowing that, if my children went to that school, I would want to know if this was going on. I would want to know that my children had not been touched either, or raped. This is a cover-up of the worst, and it is disgusting.

The new education minister told me he couldn't say anything substantial about the matter because it was with the police. Here's a flash for you, Minister: get your story right, because the police aren't investigating, mate. They're not investigating. Where's the police minister? Go and put a boot up your police officers' butts. Something is wrong here. When are you going to do it? When I start naming and shaming? By then it's all going to be too late. I'm telling you: I'm not going to let this go. The most basic job of politicians, both state and federal, is to look after Australian kids. It is the most fundamental, basic thing, and we have a responsibility to protect our children. The Tasmanian government has failed to get the job done, and you are shameful. You have about six weeks to two months, before I get back up here, to get this fixed.