Wednesday, 21 February 2024
Motions
Apology for past care leavers
Motions
Apology for past care leavers
That this house takes note of the parliamentary apology to Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care.
I would like to open my comments on this apology with a quote:
There is no way to describe what these boys and girls went through, other than to say that they entered the gates of hell.
These are the words of my late husband Senator Steve Hutchins, who in 2004 chaired the Community Affairs References Committee in the Commonwealth Senate, which explored the pain and suffering of children who were entrusted into state care, not just here in Victoria but in every state and territory. This report was colloquially known as the inquiry into forgotten Australians. Here we are 20 years later, and I stand here and acknowledge the progress that we have made in just recent weeks.
I thank the Premier for her heartfelt apology on behalf of the Parliament to those who suffered unimaginable harm at the hands of the state, an apology that was long overdue. The people whose stories were told in that report experienced evil, absolute evil, at the hands of the state, and many could not share their stories or even be here on the day of the apology. They should never have suffered. They should never have been forgotten, and their pain should not have been ignored for so long.
To those Victorians who suffered at the hands of the state, I too am sorry. A lot of pain and suffering took place between 1928 and 1990. More than 90,000 children were placed in institutional care here in Victoria, where many of them during this period experienced harm at the hands of the people they should have trusted, and it was allowed to continue for 62 years. Children were experiencing abuse, neglect and mistreatment at a time many of us in this room were starting our professional careers. A blind eye was turned. Thousands of children who were entrusted to the state have waited a long time to have their pain recognised and acknowledged.
My late husband Steve referred to the inquiry as the most harrowing experience of his life, a very sad and painful inquiry. I remember him over the summer 20 years ago reading the submissions that had come in to that inquiry and having a box of tissues on hand. Many tried to understand what had happened, but it was not until that federal inquiry that we actually heard so many stories, so much evidence, of young children growing up in state care and being abused. A home just does not define where you live, it is where you feel most comfortable, where you should feel loved and safe. These so-called homes that children were placed in were anything but that. Home should not be a place characterised by brutality or a place to be feared. These children should not have been deprived of their education or access to basic health care. They did not deserve the neglect. They did not deserve the abuse.
I saw the impact these hearings had on so many people that I met through that federal inquiry and of course through the relationship that I have built up with the Care Leavers Australasia Network. To many those memories are now nightmares that they live with every day – memories which have left both physical and emotional scars, pain and shame. This shame should not be carried by the victims and victim-survivors but instead by adults who perpetrated this abuse and neglect and the people and institutions that allowed it to happen. Just as our Premier said, the shame is not yours to bear, it is ours. It was the state’s responsibility to protect you, and we failed. Childhoods were taken in our care, on our watch, and an apology is not enough, but it is a start. It is what the Care Leavers Australasia Network have been calling for for many years. When I was Minister for Victim Support I heard directly from CLAN, including from the formidable Leonie Sheedy, who has always advocated staunchly for care leavers and their rights.
Your stories should not be forgotten, and they will not be. We must continue to right the wrongs inflicted on care leavers, so how do we move forward? Well, we must continue to listen to those who have been brave enough to speak. We must continue to take guidance from organisations such as CLAN, Open Place, the Alliance for Forgotten Australians, Child Migrants Trust, Connecting Home and more, who offer supports to victims and advocate for their ongoing needs. These atrocities are unforgivable, and we must do everything we can to ensure Victorians who have been affected have access to the resources and support they need.
We had a family friend who battled with mental ill health and alcoholism for many years and quite often was uninvited to events with the broader family. It took me some time to understand what his history was, and of course he had been in state care in New South Wales and had had some of the most horrific experiences with sexual abuse as a five- and six-year-old when he first went into care. It took such courage for him to be able to walk away from that and build a career, but the scars clearly remained in his life as he battled with alcoholism and with his mental ill health. There are so many stories like this. There are so many people that many of us in this place may know struggle with these sorts of addictions and mental health challenges but may not know that this is the cause. We may know people’s parents that have suffered from that. We may even have family members ourselves. As I said, these atrocities are unforgivable, and we need to make sure that we acknowledge this pain and hurt and how much it has been inflicted on families.
Just as my late husband Steve said in his last speech to Parliament, I hope we never let the suffering of these children be forgotten, and I am really pleased that in this place today we are doing exactly that. We are making sure that they are not forgotten, and we are making the change and the apology that is needed to start the healing.
Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (18:09): I am very pleased to rise today to talk on the take-note for the Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care. I am not going to even pretend to imagine what those people went through. I do not think any of us could – I really do not – but I am very pleased that both sides of this Parliament apologised. We had the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition and the Greens as well. I think it is very important to the people who suffered this historical abuse to hear that apology from community leaders – basically this Parliament. As said previously, the apology is a step – I hope it is a step in the right direction – for the people that have suffered this abuse. I hope it is a step in the right direction that they know that we have acknowledged what they have been through, and hopefully it is a step in the right direction for them to start to heal. I think that is the important part of this apology, to help these victims of this historical systemic abuse by Victoria in these institutions – that it gives them that opportunity, through the acknowledgement that this Parliament has made, to help them heal. That is the hardest part.
I heard what the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Greens said. When I talk to people that have suffered abuse of any type I always think I could never imagine what they are going through, because that has not happened to me personally. I always feel great empathy. When you talk to these people and you listen to them you feel possibly maybe a bit of guilt, because although you have great sympathy and empathy for that person, sometimes words may seem hollow, like ‘Are you okay?’ and these types of things. But I think what this Parliament has done by having this apology hopefully fills that void a little bit for these people.
I worked out at the Kew Cottages, which had some horrific stories of abuse. It was quite interesting when I went out there as it was a very, very eerie feeling there. The empty buildings there were like everybody got told ‘Leave now’ and everyone went out. You walked into those buildings and there were still teething cups; there were all their personal effects. It was just like a ghost town, like everyone had disappeared. Knowing the history of the Kew Cottages and what they used to do out there, it was a very, very uncomfortable feeling going through there. Unfortunately this state historically has failed to look after our most vulnerable, and especially in this actual institutional care.
I am extremely humbled to be able to talk on this, and I will not go on for too much longer, because I just really wanted to say that I hope that the apology that we have done as this Parliament, while I know it will not fill the void, can put them on a path to healing.
Ella GEORGE (Lara) (18:13): It is an honour to make a contribution on the motion before the house today on the apology to those Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care. I think the Premier summed up best the importance of this historic apology that took place in this house on 8 February 2024 when she said:
Today we acknowledge a shameful chapter in our history, and the experiences of a group of Victorians who have fought for a long time to be heard.
This apology was the Victorian Parliament’s opportunity to formally recognise and apologise for wrongs committed against children during a dark, dark part of this state’s history. I begin by acknowledging those children who were placed in institutional care as wards of the state and who suffered so much. We cannot change the past, but we must own up to it. We must not diminish it or say they were different times. We must fully recognise the hurt and horror inflicted on innocent children and move forward with this apology and a redress scheme.
I acknowledge the tireless work of so many. Without their advocacy and fierce assistance, we would not be here today. I acknowledge and thank the Care Leavers Australasia Network, Open Place, the Alliance for Forgotten Australians, Child Migrants Trust, Connecting Home and everyone who has demanded recognition for Victorians who experienced abuse and neglect while they were in care. I also want to thank the Premier for her leadership in delivering this historic apology.
In my short time in this place I have been honoured to work closely with the Care Leavers Australasia Network and the remarkable Leonie Sheedy. CLAN supports countless Australians who grew up in orphanages and children’s homes. More recently CLAN have opened the Australian Orphanage Museum in Geelong. The museum does a remarkable job documenting and exhibiting authentic social histories about the experiences of growing up in orphanages, children’s homes, missions and other institutions, including foster care, in Australia. I encourage all members to visit.
The museum was established so that this part of our history is visible to all Australians. The collection contains hundreds if not thousands of items, and every single item has a story to tell, from children’s toys like dolls and teddy bears to cups and saucers and teaspoons and of course religious books – Bibles, prayer books, holy communion books. There is even a brick from an orphanage in Western Australia, and it has a story too – a story of a boy who lost his life.
Right now in the museum there is a remarkable exhibition that tells the story of Geelong care leavers accessing their records for the first time. Records are important to care leavers because for so long they were denied. Imagine not being able to access your own birth certificate or school reports. And these records do not speak the full truth or tell the full story. As Leonie told me, ‘There are too many redactions in our state ward files. They love redacting information.’ In the time I have today I would like to share some of the stories from this exhibition.
Keith spent time as a ward of the state in Glastonbury. He remembers running away as he wanted to go to Melbourne and that the police were waiting for him at the train station. Keith said:
After you ran away, you got a baldy. They’d shave your head in the playground in front of everyone. You were someone if you had a bald head. The Superintendent was Pop Dawson. Usually it was the boys who ran away, because the girls were locked in at night.
Keith spoke about his records:
I applied for my records 2–3 years ago, when I was applying for redress. I wasn’t interested before.
My records were more or less non existent. They had my name, my sisters’ names. There was stuff-all in em. I found out why I was in care. My parents split, and my grandfather sent us to a home. I wasn’t a ward of state. You get more records if you’re a ward. I was in care for thirteen years.
In the records, they wouldn’t tell you that they belted you. The superintendents, Dawes and Jones, I wonder where their records are? I was the ‘best boy’, the best boy in the orphanage. I remember it. It wasn’t in the records. I remember the trophy, I had to put my own name on it. I have it somewhere, it broke in half. That night, the Superintendent whacked me. Edgar Jones. He whacked me with a horse harness. They won’t put the truth in your records.
Keith’s story is hard to hear. So is Heather’s. Heather was born in Geelong and spent time at St Catherine’s. She left when she turned 16. In an act of defiance when she left she stole the bell from the refectory. Heather said:
… it’s the only thing I ever stole in my life! What did it represent? I don’t know. It controlled my life. When I stole it, it was like, I’m in control.
We heard about Heather and her sister Evelyn in the Premier’s speech. Heather spoke about wanting to access her records because it would tell her more about what happened to her sister Evelyn, and what is in her records is harrowing. Heather said:
I wanted to know about Evelyn, how did she die? The Department wrote to my mum, saying they didn’t have her address, they blamed her for that. My mum’s friend heard on the radio on 3GL and told my mum. On the radio they said it was Faye who had died, not Evelyn.
The Department couldn’t even get her name right. That’s how much interest they showed. They wrote the wrong name on her headstone.
Eight-year-old Evelyn died of rheumatic fever despite her siblings pleading with staff at St Catherine’s to treat her.
I would like to thank the care leavers who have generously shared their stories with me personally. To Billy, Pat, Janet, Terry, John, Frank and Leonie, I sincerely thank you.
I would like to share two more stories with the house – firstly, Terry’s. Terry told me that he was stolen from his parents at two months old. He grew up in St Augustine’s in Geelong and St Joseph’s in Surrey Hills. Terry’s parents fought hard to get him back, including writing to their local MP. After 16 years in care Terry was transferred to a hostel and left to look after himself. What I think is really special about Terry and his story is that despite his horrific experiences he is committed to helping other care leavers. He has shared his story widely to raise awareness about the horrors of what it was like for so many growing up in orphanages. He gives back to CLAN every single week, showing up every Tuesday without fail to mow the lawns at the Australian Orphanage Museum in Geelong.
I will conclude my contribution today by speaking about Pat. Pat is 79, and yesterday she found out who her father is. For Pat it was a mixture of sadness and joy, finally knowing her dad’s name. Now she has photos of her father and his war service records. Pat’s own records never recorded who her father was. CLAN have helped Pat and other care leavers find their parents. Pat’s father was tracked down through DNA testing and connecting with younger family members.
Leonie Sheedy helped Pat with this process and has helped countless other care leavers find their parents, their brothers and their sisters. Leonie told me what she said to Pat yesterday. She said, ‘You’ve got family now, Pat, and they want to know you.’ Pat is an elegant, softly spoken woman. She is as sharp as a tack, but when she was a ward of the state she was constantly told that she was mentally retarded. Pat told me that when she was old enough to leave the orphanage she went to go and work in another one because the world outside institutional care had been hidden from her.
Pat’s story is incredibly moving. Her life and the lives of so many others were irreparably damaged by a state that should have been caring for these children and their families but failed to do so. The churches and the charities who ran these homes, child welfare services, police and the justice system all let these children and their families down considerably. The stories of children in care and the impact it has had on their lives should be amplified in the Parliament today and for future generations who may one day seek to understand the impact of this dark part of Victorian history.
On 8 February 2024 we said that we were sorry. We said sorry with the knowledge that the past cannot be erased and that our words will not put right all the wrongs of the past. But in saying sorry we recognise that Victorian children were abused in institutional care. We recognise their pain and suffering and the hurt that they carry with them today. We commit to a redress scheme that truly listens to those who experienced abuse. I commend this motion to the house.
Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (18:22): I rise today to speak on this take-note motion:
That this house takes note of the parliamentary apology to Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care.
I have only a few short words to say on this today, and I would like to acknowledge the words of the member for Lara, the member for Narracan and others who have spoken today and in the previous sitting fortnight, particularly the words that were given by both the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition at the time. It is important for those who have been through this historical abuse and neglect or indeed who are in such situations even to this day to be listened to and to be believed. We must have two ears and one mouth when we listen to and hear the stories and indeed what has happened in the lives of these people.
I would like to note a personal situation that occurred within my own family. My father Barry was born in Mildura in the north-west of Victoria. Unfortunately his mother died when he was just three years old, at the age of 23. He did also have a younger sister, who was about one year old at the time that their mother passed away. He was sent off to live with various aunts and uncles and eventually was able to move back to live with his own father when he remarried, in his teenage years, before he was then sent off to the army apprentice scheme in Mount Martha, which is in my electorate today. But his sister Glenda was sent off to Kew Cottages. We know that the stories of people in Kew Cottages are not often very good at all and that sometimes the care that they received, if you can call it care, was not great. Indeed it goes beyond just situations where they received poor care; some were utterly neglected and some were totally mistreated as well. Unfortunately due to the ‘care’ that she received at Kew Cottages, unfortunately my father’s sister Glenda died when she was 14 years of age.
That is a situation that I know still haunts my father to this day and it is something that he does not talk about very much, and I know that he would like to find out more about what happened at that time. I know that my grandmother, who is in Clyde North and who is about to turn 90 – my grandfather had remarried – would also of course like to know more as she was the stepmum of this girl at the time. It was a terrible incident at the time, but there were many incidents that occurred at Kew Cottages and in other government institutional care.
I would like also to note a story of a local gentleman – he is not in my electorate, but he lives nearby in Frankston – by the name of Robert Jones. Robert is a person I helped when I was the member for Dunkley between 2016 and 2019, but I continued to meet with him and speak with him and listen to and believe in him even after I was a member of Parliament between 2019 and 2022. I have continued to work with him since I became a member at the state level in 2022. While this goes beyond Victoria – he was abused by a chaplain within the defence forces – I know that when he first approached me in my office he had been through many situations where people in the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and others simply had not listened to him. They had not believed his story, and sometimes when people do not believe your story you can sound more and more crazy over time because you are trying to tell your story to people and people are just not believing you. They are not listening to you. That can create a spiral where the more it happens, the more people do not believe you. So when he came to my office I sat down with him and I believed him and I advocated for him, and that is why we established a friendship that goes beyond him having just been a constituent at the time. I continue to advocate for him today because these are things that occur and have occurred in institutional care and should no longer occur in Australia or indeed anywhere around the world.
When you look at family and other care, obviously the first and best situation is to have family care. The next would be kinship care and then foster care. The last situation we should have people in is orphanages or other forms of institutional care. That is why we have moved down a path in Australia of no longer having orphanages, but I know that this situation does continue with child residential institutions in our region in the Asia-Pacific and beyond and with orphanages more generally. I do believe that Australia and indeed Victoria can do more in this area as well. We are looking at institutional care in Victoria and in Australia at the moment, but Victorians as well can look to what they can do when they are looking to volunteer or donate to those who are engaged in orphanages or child residential institutions overseas. The facts show that more than 80 per cent of people in orphanages overseas have a parent or both parents who are still alive. There are human traffickers and people who engage in orphanage trafficking who will traffic people into this situation, and often these kids end up in sexual slavery and abuse, paedophile rings, child labour and so forth.
When I was a federal member of Parliament, I chaired the foreign affairs and aid subcommittee. We led the modern slavery inquiry, and we had a whole chapter looking at orphanage trafficking. One of our recommendations was that we should have a list – whether it is an Australian list or indeed it can be a Victorian list as well – of genuine overseas institutions where Victorians or Australians can volunteer at or donate to. That would ensure that people are volunteering for or donating to the legitimate ones. It will help to defund those who are doing the wrong thing while concentrating donations and volunteer efforts into those doing the right thing. We could look in the long run as well to not just having a list but also making it illegal for Victorians or Australians to engage in volunteerism or donations to any institutions that are not on that list. Yes, we need to look at what is happening in Australia, but we also need to look at what Victorians and Australians can do to stop abuse and neglect of children in institutional care within the Asia-Pacific and in a global world as well. We know that of course family care is the best. When you have that opportunity for family care it is amazing, but not all people have that family care, and some people even in a family situation are abused as well, so we need to do all that we can to help resolve the situation.
I would like to acknowledge the government and the opposition as well, and all the other parties in this Parliament in the Assembly and the Council, for the efforts – bipartisanship or multipartisanship – that have gone into tackling these issues and bringing forward this apology to Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care. May we continue to do as much as we can in Victoria, Australia and around the world to tackle these very important issues.
Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (18:30): I want to start by giving a warning for those who are online or who may be reading this in Hansard at any point that much of my speech and probably those that follow me will be talking about things that may trigger people who have experienced institutional violence and abuse. I just want to make sure that people are aware now and as Hansard is recorded that this content could be triggering.
I also want to start by acknowledging the survivors, those people from institutional care, and by saying sorry. I say sorry on behalf of me and my electorate of Geelong. I also want to acknowledge those who died without any recognition of or justice for what happened to them. It is tragic that they were not heard. Sadly, I have spoken to a number of people who have now passed and heard their stories, and I can only imagine what they would be thinking now that they have actually had an official apology and acknowledgement for what they experienced.
The Premier’s recent emotional apology in this place was a significant step forward, allowing this state to say sorry for what happened to these children, that they are now believed and that it was wrong. So many from that institutional care came to the Parliament to hear the apology and watch it online. I am sure that took enormous courage for them to do that. I would like to give a shout-out to Colleen, who watched online and contacted my office afterwards. I will not go into any detail about Colleen, because I do not want to identify her, but the fact that she felt that she was able to contact my office was really significant for her.
I do want to acknowledge the fierce advocacy of Leonie Sheedy, her team at CLAN and the work that they have done. They have never given up. They were persistent and focused on getting their voices heard. To the former member for Lara, John Eren, I want to say thank you for all your work and everything that you did, supporting CLAN and the museum over a very long period of time and sitting down having conversations with ministers, with advisers and with me and a number of MPs all involved in that. That was a long journey. Enormous credit to John for the work that he did, and I am fairly confident that many of those care leavers are very grateful to him for that persistence. Otherwise, we would not be here today.
Geelong sadly has a history of, I think, probably the most orphanages in the state. Vulnerable children were left at the hands of horrific abusers that impacted their lives completely. I have heard from CLAN members, forgotten Australians and those who refer to themselves as someone who has lived experience in an institution as a child. They have told me of their experiences at the hands of brutal people who were supposed to be caring for them. Many have talked about how it has ruined their life, and they did not have good experiences as adults with their own families. Many talked about family breakdown, abuse, drug and alcohol problems, mental health issues and all those unresolved issues that they experienced, and the impact that it has had on them has been horrendous.
I have read the document A Terrible Way to Grow Up. It is the findings from the CLAN survey undertaken in 2006–07, and it is about the experience of institutional care and its outcomes on care leavers in Australia. I recommend people take the time to read it. It is tough reading because the data in this report shows the shocking level of abuse. The survey shows respondents identified things like physical abuse and being deprived of food, being deprived of visits, being locked in cupboards, being force fed, being forced to eat their own vomit, being denied treats, sexual abuse and being forced to do long hours of chores and unpaid work. It is sickening to hear and to read this – and this is just a modified version, I have to say. I think we should all be looking at that document to get a greater understanding of what those children experienced. This happened to them in the care of this state – vulnerable, innocent children in the so-called care of orphanages, missions, children’s homes and foster care. The experiences shared by those in institutional care are absolutely horrific.
I also recommend those who have not already to visit the museum in Geelong. The member for Lara has also mentioned this, and it is very confronting, but it is also very important as a reminder to all of us about the shocking part of this history. When you walk through the museum – and as I said, it is confronting – you see toys, books, clothing, shoes and photos. There are actually photos of all those members of Parliament that have been involved in the work of CLAN and the messages of support that accompany them. There are letters, there are photographs – we cannot imagine what those children were experiencing when those photos were taken.
I know an apology cannot take away or change what happened, but I hope it can give some recognition of those who experienced abuse, and that it is a clear message that it will not happen again.
I know during my time at secondary school – and I will reflect now on this – there were quite a number of children living in orphanages in Geelong who were attending the same school as I was, and those children, everyone knew who they were, and they were always identified as being naughty or bad children. They were always running away from school, there were always issues, and when I reflect on that now, I understand completely why that was happening. But I have to say that the education system did not really support them either, because they had branded them as naughty and bad children instead of offering some support and perhaps even identifying some of the abuse that they were experiencing. I would like to think that that would never happen now we have mandatory reporting and a whole lot of systems in place, but when I think back to that time, it is really sad to know that those children were experiencing that sort of abuse. I know definitely some of them were, because I have spoken to them now as adults whose lives have been ruined by what they experienced in institutional care.
So I think it is really important that this apology is happening, that we move towards the redress scheme and that people that have experienced abuse in institutional care can at least get some comfort in the fact that we are now saying we believe what happened to them, we believe that they did not deserve to be treated like that and that they are good people who are now experiencing some pretty horrific effects of what they experienced as children. So I do again apologise for what happened to them. I know that all of us on both sides of the chamber have expressed our sincere apologies for what happened to them, and I commend the motion to the house.
Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (18:39): I too would like, individually but also as part of the collective apology, to apologise for the more than 90,000 Victorian children who were placed in care between 1928 and 1990, with many of them subsequently physically and emotionally abused and neglected. Also I would like to acknowledge the survivors, and I did have the honour of meeting a number of survivors on the day that the Premier made a formal apology on behalf of the government. I certainly would like to echo the sentiments that were shared on that day as well. It is staggering when you think of the sheer number of Victorian children whose lives were changed forever, and obviously not in a positive way.
I would like to pick up on that word, ‘care’. I actually googled the word, because inevitably when we think of the word ‘care’ we think it must have a net positive – at a minimum it must involve a good intention. But we can see from the reflections and the heartfelt stories of so many who have been so dreadfully treated in orphanages, missions, children’s homes and foster care that I should be very cautious using that word because of the care that they did not receive. Customarily we assume it should have been something that was overwhelmingly supporting their welfare in the best sense – looking at their health and wellbeing and making sure that they got an education. Even hearing that there were those who did not get an education is beyond belief. Hearing some of the stories shared in the chamber today, again I cannot fathom what possessed those who purported to be looking after these very vulnerable children. What were they thinking? I mean, what possessed them? It was some sort of misguided moralising and judging of children who in many circumstances were put into these situations because of poverty. It was inherently inequitable, to say the least.
With a different mindset and with a view to service – because I would like to think that churches, charities, orphanages and the like should have been focused on doing the right thing and giving true service to children and hoping to go a long way, which they did not do – they could have been doing their best to fulfil some of what we would consider basic parenting requirements, like making sure they were fed properly, that they got the required sleep and obviously that they were not physically, sexually or emotionally abused.
Imagine if the authorities had stepped in and actually helped and supported in many instances mothers who simply just did not have enough money at the time for whatever reason or whatever circumstances they were having to endure to get through those tough times. Instead we saw this horrible, horrendous and inexcusable cycle of abuse and of course the many ramifications that have unfolded up until this day. If we think that this was happening right up until 1990, that also is just really hard to understand.
It makes me even more grateful for the love and care that I received as a child. I cannot imagine how confusing it was and the incredible disappointment, the hurt, the fear and the suffering – the absolute suffering – that these Victorian children endured. As I say, I think it was probably in direct contrast to what one would consider any religion or otherwise should be claiming to enable or to inspire in others in terms of taking good care, giving service and showing kindness. Where was the kindness? It seems like it was completely withdrawn from the presence of these children. Of course we know that if you are kind to others, you are far more likely to receive kindness in return. There was nothing to be gained from this horrendous judgement of these children simply, in essence, because they were born, because they existed. None of them, not one of them, deserved the horrendous conditions, treatment or otherwise that they were exposed to.
I heard before somebody mention the term ‘Kew Cottages’. When you think of a cottage, it sounds like it should be quaint and it should be a lovely environment, a supportive environment, and of course we can see from the stories that have been shared that unfortunately it was something to the contrary in many instances, which is just simply inexcusable. I am not seeking to isolate that particular institution or organisation of course. I am just giving an example of the sheer contrast between what a particular organisation was meant to deliver and what they actually did to these children.
Of course it goes without saying the hurt cannot be undone. In saying sorry, nobody here can undo the harm. We cannot, and I do not think anyone would seek in any way to try and prove that somehow by saying sorry it will undo harm that has been done. On the contrary, I think it is about acknowledging the preciousness of each and every one of those children and those who have survived, honouring the memory of those who have not or who may have passed on and acknowledging that they deserved so much more. They deserved a normal loving and supported existence with appropriate education, just as every other Victorian child does.
I certainly hope that with the true collectiveness in terms of the apology for what has happened to these 90,000 Victorian children it will go some way to helping healing to begin, and of course every individual person who went through some of these horrific circumstances will have their own way of being able to process what they went through. I would not pretend to anticipate what is needed obviously for each and every one of those survivors, because that is their individual journey pursuant to each and every one of their needs. But at a very minimum we say this must never happen again, and this is I think another really important element of saying sorry. Of course we absolutely mean it, and I certainly mean it on a very personal level as well. But also at a minimum the aspiration would be that by saying sorry we are acknowledging that what happened never should have happened and should never happen again, and so therefore it takes a collective good on the part of everyone to make sure that is so. Hence this is why we need to be continually vigilant to make sure that into the future every Victorian child is treated with the love and respect that they deserve and that we do what we can for those survivors to help them heal from what is nothing less than an absolute travesty. But I am at the same time hopeful that through saying sorry we are doing something that can help the healing into the future. On that note I commend this motion to the house.
That the debate be now adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.
Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.