Wednesday, 1 November 2023

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): My question is to the Premier. Twelve months ago the government promised a redress scheme for the more than 90,000 Victorians put into state care. Why has the government failed to honour its promise to these Victorians?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:35): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. The government will be delivering on its commitment to issue an apology to people who have been in care in the state, in historical care, and as I indicated this morning, that apology will be delivered before the end of the year. On Friday I look forward to meeting directly with representatives, as I have in the past, and I know that many others in this house have also met with representatives in the past, because they have campaigned tirelessly and continuously to see this moment come, and we will deliver that before the end of the year. I will provide those representatives with the respect of sharing the information directly with them, because they deserve every ounce of our respect, given their own personal experiences and also how hard they have worked to see a government commit to this apology.

 John PESUTTO (Hawthorn – Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): The government promised that hardship payments of up to $10,000 would be available prior to the introduction of the redress scheme. No payments have been made. Is the government deliberately delaying payments due to the poor state of the state budget?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:37): The answer to that question is no, and I am not going to dignify the Leader of the Opposition’s base politicisation of people who have experienced abuse, people who have experienced neglect – abuse and neglect.

John Pesutto: On a point of order, Speaker, we are not going to cop that. The government made a promise. You promised hardship payments and you didn’t deliver –

The SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

Jacinta ALLAN: Victorians who have experienced abuse and neglect whilst they have been placed in institutional care deserve our respect, deserve our love and support. They deserve an apology in this place, and they also deserve the opportunity to work with us on co-designing a redress scheme. That is what we will deliver. We will work with representatives of the community. We had hoped that this was something that would be above politics. We will continue to work directly with the community, and we will do this before the end of the year.