Thursday, 2 May 2024
Motions
Apology for past care leavers
Motions
Apology for past care leavers
Debate resumed on motion of Natalie Hutchins:
That this house takes note of the parliamentary apology to Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care.
Luba GRIGOROVITCH (Kororoit) (11:45): I continue where I left off last sitting week in this place in speaking to the Premier’s apology to Victorians who experienced historical abuse or neglect as children in institutional care, which was delivered in this place on Thursday 8 February.
Last time I spoke about how as I sat in the chamber that day when the apology was being delivered I looked over to the public gallery and I was awestruck by the presence of so many survivors, along with their loved ones and the carers who joined us. One of the things that moved me the most was the number of disabled people and their carers who were in the gallery. It moved me because of my own uncle Ken. As I have said before, Uncle Ken has lived with us for his entire life. He was born with a disability. Despite being told by his doctor when he was in his 30s that he could not possibly live past the age of 40, Uncle Ken turned 71 in March, and he has not gone anywhere. I am so blessed to have my Uncle Ken in my life and in our family’s lives, because he has taught me to always see the person and not the disability. He has lived his life his way, and we are all so very proud of him. He is the gentlest of souls, and while we gave him a home, it was he who was always healing us.
After hearing the apology and the stories of the survivors of this institutional abuse, I thought of what might have happened to my Uncle Ken had he been born into a different world; what might have happened to him had he been born into a world where people with a disability were regarded as nothing more than a burden; what might have happened to him had he been born into a world where the state arrogated to itself the power to remove children with the stroke of a pen, to remove them from their families which it regarded to be socially inferior through no fault of their own, no matter how much we loved or cared for him; what might have happened to him in a world where his carers were not there to care for him at all but policed, mistreated, neglected, abused, harmed and dehumanised him in the most unspeakable ways. Worst of all, if my Uncle Ken had been snatched up and thrown into this hellish world without ever knowing love, like so many thousands of innocent children were, would his life have lasted through childhood at all? The thought sends a shiver down my spine. As the Premier said:
Unmarried couples, single mums and dads, those who had the misfortune of just being poor or sick – the state set its sights on the most vulnerable in our community, making judgements with the stroke of a pen that would change the course of someone’s life forever. When you listen to their stories it is that casual indifference, that careless cruelty that is often the hardest to bear – the arrogance and incompetence of officials who thought they knew better.
I welcome the Allan Labor government’s announcement that it is working to roll out a redress scheme later this year, which will be co-designed with organisations representing victim-survivors. I also welcome the advance payments that will start to be made to victim-survivors in the meantime before the broader scheme is ready, because there can be nothing resembling justice for these survivors without compensation.
I want to thank and commend the victim-survivors organisations that made this historic apology and redress possible, including the Care Leavers Australasia Network, CLAN; Open Place; Alliance for Forgotten Australians; Child Migrants Trust; Connecting Home and more. As the Premier said:
… these brave men and women have been resisting their whole lives … Like wildflowers growing through a crack in the cement, they rose up. They rebelled, they fooled adults and sometimes they escaped.
Without these remarkable people’s relentless campaigns to make their truth known, we politicians never would have known and never would have acted. There are far too many individuals to name, but I will single out the incredible Leonie Sheedy from CLAN. Leonie said that this history needs to be taught in schools in Victoria, and I firmly believe that it does. It should never be forgotten.
Finally, let me say that we cannot allow these institutions to continue to fail people today, because if we do, our apology will simply be in vain. If there are instances in our community where children must be removed from their surrounds for their own wellbeing, we must have the most stringent oversights in place to ensure that they do not suffer any institutional abuse or neglect. And families suffering social disadvantage through no fault of their own must never be targeted and have their children removed from them. The truth is that there are too many children living in out-of-home care, away from their families, in Victoria, and this has to change, because saying sorry means that we will never do it again. Once again, I acknowledge the victim-survivors and those who are tragically no longer with us. I commit myself to a loving and beautiful world, worthy of all of our humanity.
Bronwyn HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (11:50): I too would like to add my voice to the Victorian parliamentary apology to children who were supposed to be cared for by the state, children that were often forcibly removed from their families to supposedly be cared for better in a children’s home. A children’s home – it sounds like a nice place, a nurturing place, but in fact they were houses of horror, often brutal, humiliating, cruel and vicious, stifling all aspiration, hope and development.
The apology given by Premier Jacinta Allan on behalf of all members of the Victorian Labor government acknowledged and apologised to Victorians who experienced historical abuse and neglect as children in institutional care. This abuse included criminal abuse, but also the children were often denied basic rights such as the right to an education, to literacy and numeracy. A resident of Thomastown who has been fighting for justice for those in state care for many years tells me he was denied an education at school and as a result he was denied the opportunity to learn to read and write. While the adults in charge of his life set him on a course of poverty and low-paid work, if any at all, there was a brighter side. He found an apprenticeship in the metal trades, and the trades teacher allowed him to do the test to qualify in his trade verbally – one act of kindness that in Alf’s words changed the course of his life, allowing him to buy a house and provide well for his family. That teacher obviously saw the potential in Alf.
While our apology refers to historical abuse, we all know that the effect of such abuse is not historical. The effects are lifelong and, in many cases, cut lives short. I want to acknowledge the leaders that I know of that have driven the fight for justice and acknowledgement from government – Leonie Sheedy from the Care Leavers Australasia Network and, closer to home, Alf and Bev Stirling, residents of the Thomastown electorate, who have fought for their rights and the rights of all children to be safe. I know there have been many, many others who have worked and fought for justice, but these are the individuals that I know most.
My grandmother was in an orphanage for a short time. Her parents were migrants and had no childcare backup. Her mother was gravely ill in hospital, and her father had no choice but to put her, her brother and her sister in care, because he needed to keep his job. Of course there was no carers leave in those days. She never spoke of it, and we can only wonder about her experience.
The lack of proper acknowledgement and an apology to children in state care by the Victorian government has been a missing piece in the tragedy of institutional abuse of children, and I am proud to be part of the government that has done it now. In 2011 the then state Liberal government referred a reference to the Family and Community Development Committee to inquire into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations, and I commend the Baillieu Liberal government for its courage at the time. Frank Maguire and I, as newly elected MPs, were appointed to this committee prior to the reference, and we were the two opposition members on it. The committee received many submissions, both in writing and in person, and heard the most harrowing personal accounts of crimes against children, and it was in these hearings that it became obvious to us that the reference to religious and non-government institutions was too narrow and denied justice to those in state care. The terms of reference prevented proper scrutiny of the role of the state that in effect gave children to religious and non-government institutions.
The Victorian government also ran its own institutions, such as Turana, and it was state institutions such as the police and other agencies that often dismissed reports made by children, when they were children as well as when they were adults. The inquiry and the report, Betrayal of Trust, found that, for example:
There appears to have been either limited or no State monitoring of these …
places.
The Committee was informed of an example of a child being physically assaulted by a police officer when apprehended …
having run away from care. The child had told the police officer of the abuse, resulting in a beating, and then they were returned to the institution.
This was one such example from the CLAN submission, and we also received submissions and copies of correspondence that had been sent to members of Parliament over the years telling them of the abuse, and it was ignored and presumably not believed. As a member of the Victorian Allan Labor government, I am deeply sorry and so very, very angry. During the Betrayal of Trust inquiry we heard many examples of individuals telling people in authority – elected representatives, police, church leaders and department representatives – about what was happening and what had happened, and it seems at the time of the offending not one adult bothered to inquire, investigate or check. This is truly disturbing. I hope this apology, unanimously endorsed across the Victorian Parliament, means that we will all be vigilant and never dismiss allegations made because they are too outlandish, impossible or challenging.
Before I finish, I would like to quote from the Betrayal of Trust report the experience again of a resident who was at the Bayswater Boys Home, run by the Salvation Army:
Whilst in care at both facilities [operated by the Bayswater Boys Home], I was abused mentally, sexually and physically by the staff. I was not privy to the names of the staff as I was only ordered to refer to them as BOSS. We were given food that was not –
fit for animals to eat –
… porridge with [weevils], mouldy bread … Floggings and beating on a daily basis, scars on my body bear the horrific memories. At night I would hear screams and crying, hoping that my door would not be opened, that that night I would not be … abused. Although, I was no exception, I was … abused many times.
Today I sleep with an axe and knife under my bed. My family has suffered by side effect behaviour from the abuse.
Following the tabling of the Betrayal of Trust and the subsequent election of a state Labor government in 2014, it became our responsibility to implement the recommendations of the Betrayal of Trust report. Victoria has introduced some of the most progressive reform on prevention in the country, the child safe legislative reform and grooming offences, as an example. I hope that this apology has some meaning to those children unforgivably let down by the state, and we know that an apology is not the end of it. The heartbreaking truth remains that institutional abuse and its impacts on individuals, families and generations will always be unfinished business.
That the debate be now adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.
Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.