Thursday, 30 July 2026

 Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Premier, Minister for Education, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Minister for Medical Research) (11:33): I move:

That this house endorses the apology to victims and survivors of historical child sexual abuse in Victorian government schools.

I stand here today to acknowledge a terrible reality: children and young people who should have been safe in Victorian government schools were sexually abused by people entrusted with their care. We gather in this place to acknowledge these crimes and the institutional failures that left children unprotected. We also acknowledge the broader reality: child sexual abuse has been committed in schools, institutions and homes across our community. Every victim-survivor had the right to be protected, and every victim-survivor has the right to be heard, believed and treated with care.

Within Victorian government schools these crimes occurred over decades. They occurred in places where children should have been protected, supported and able to learn and thrive. They occurred in places that parents and carers trusted. Today we apologise for these crimes, for the failures that allowed them to occur and for the profound and lasting harm carried by victim-survivors, their families and loved ones.

For decades individual victim-survivors and their loved ones sought justice, recognition and accountability. Some told trusted adults what had been done to them. Some made formal complaints or pursued civil claims. Some searched for other victim-survivors, gathered evidence and fought to hold perpetrators accountable through the justice system. Much of that work has been carried out privately and without the recognition or response it deserved.

Today we acknowledge all of those victims-survivors, families and supporters. We also acknowledge the courage of victim-survivors who have not come forward, who have never spoken publicly about what was done to them. No person should feel pressured to tell their story until they are ready to or, if not, at all. But to any victim-survivor who does choose to come forward: you choose and you deserve to be heard, to be treated with respect and to be cared for and taken seriously.

In 2021 Rod Owen spoke publicly about the sexual abuse committed against him when he was a child at Beaumaris Primary School, knowing that disclosure would come at a personal cost. His decision brought sustained public attention to the crimes committed at Beaumaris Primary. It also helped to drive broader scrutiny of the practices and systematic failures across Victorian government schools that victim-survivors, families and communities had been trying to have recognised for decades. That burden did not belong to Rod. It did not belong with any victim-survivor. The responsibility to listen and act belonged to the institutions that failed them. Rod’s decision was a powerful public intervention. It added to the work of those who had already spoken, and it gave others confidence that they were not alone. More victims added their voices in their own time and in their own way.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Today we also acknowledge Grant Holland, Glen Fearnett, Tim Courtney, Rick Turner and the many other victim-survivors whose courage, persistence and solidarity have helped drive the call for the board of inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in Beaumaris Primary School and other Victorian government schools. We acknowledge the loved ones and supporters who stood beside victim-survivors and those who stood up for people who were no longer alive, including Karen Walker, whose advocacy for her brother Ian helped to ensure that his life and what was done to him would not be forgotten. We acknowledge Vicki Curie and Von, whose lived experience and advocacy has meant that victim-survivors remain central to implementing the recommendations that came from the board of inquiry and the work leading to today’s apology.

We also today acknowledge the member for Sandringham, and I thank him for being here. He was instrumental in support for the inquiry and the support for victim-survivors. I know his family will be very proud looking down as well. We also acknowledge journalists, in particular Russell Jackson. I also acknowledge former member of Parliament Stuart Grimley and advocates and organisations including the National Survivors Foundation, LOUD Fence Inc and the Survivors & Mates Support Network, who helped carry forward the work of recognition, accountability and reform.

The burden of making these crimes heard should never have rested with victim-survivors, nor should any victim-survivor have been left to wonder whether they could have prevented the harm that adults committed and institutions failed to stop. That guilt was not theirs to carry. The shame of these crimes belongs to the perpetrators. The responsibility for failing to stop them belongs with the adults and institutions that failed to act. But because victim-survivors, families, loved ones and advocates persisted, in 2023 our Victorian government established the board of inquiry. The board of inquiry created an official public record of historical child sexual abuse connected with Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools from 1960 to 1999. It examined what the Department of Education knew, what it did and what it failed to do. It found serious and systemic failures over decades, including a culture that protected institutional reputation above children’s safety. Since then the recent Forum for Truth and Recognition and the systematic review have deepened the public record, our understanding of what was done and the consequences that are still carried today. The public record describes adults who did not listen, systems that did not act, warnings that were missed and children and young people who should have been protected but were not. Instead too often adults at institutions were believed and protected while children and young people were not.

When I met with victim-survivors recently, one person described what childhood safety requires in simple and powerful terms: they said it requires big people listening to little people. Children may tell adults things that are difficult to hear and even harder to comprehend. The harm children have been subject to may be so profound and what they describe so confronting that adults struggle to recognise, understand or accept what they are hearing, even when they want to. But that is when a child most needs an adult to listen, to take them seriously and to act to protect them. Too often this did not happen, and the consequences of that failure did not end in childhood, as Betty, a victim-survivor who participated in the Forum for Truth and Recognition, described in these terms:

… if this is done to a child, in their formative years, there is something that gets etched into their core …

…

It never fades. It is always a trauma. It is a current event every single moment of life.

Her words remind us that the impacts of these crimes did not end when the abuse ended. Another victim-survivor spoke to me about what it can mean to live with those impacts, having to hold both the horror and the hope – to live with the reality and continuing effects of what was done while still trying to make space for hope. We acknowledge the strength it takes to live with both.

The board of inquiry recognised that acknowledgement, apology, memorialisation and accountability do matter to victim-survivors and their families, and that is why today matters. An apology is not enough on its own, but it is necessary.

I now move that this Parliament expresses this apology to victims and survivors, to their families, their loved ones and their communities in the following terms:

Today, we offer our formal and sincere apology to every person who was sexually abused as a student of a Victorian government school.

We failed to protect you. We failed to listen when you tried to disclose or explain what was done to you. We failed to act with the urgency, responsibility and care that you deserved.

For those historical failures, and for the harm done to you as a result, we are deeply sorry.

The shame of these crimes is not yours. It never was. The shame belongs to the perpetrators who abused you. It belongs with the institutions that failed to protect you. And it belongs with the systems that looked away when children and young people needed adults to act.

We acknowledge the harm these crimes have caused, and the impacts you continue to carry.

We acknowledge what was taken from you: the right to be safe at school, the freedom to learn in a supportive environment, the confidence to trust the adults around you, and the enjoyment of experiences and milestones that should have been ordinary parts of childhood – but were instead marked by fear.

The impacts of these crimes did not end when the abuse ended. They have affected health, relationships, education, work, trust, identity, intimacy, wellbeing and decision-making – and altered lives in ways that cannot be undone.

We also acknowledge that the harm caused by child sexual abuse ripples across families, relationships and generations, and is also carried by loved ones and supporters.

Every person who has experienced child sexual abuse has the right to be heard, believed and treated with care and respect. They have the right to receive a response that places their safety, dignity and wellbeing first.

We acknowledge the additional harm caused when those who sought help were ignored, disbelieved, silenced, blamed or threatened. Those failures deepened the harm and continue to represent a profound betrayal of trust.

We want you to know that, even though you were not heard then, you are heard now. And we believe you.

We honour the courage of victims and their loved ones who fought to be heard, sought answers, brought these crimes into the open and demanded accountability. Victim-survivors and their loved ones have been forced to drive changes that institutions should have led themselves. That responsibility belonged with government, the Department of Education, schools, and the adults who failed to act. Today, we commit to carrying that responsibility forward through action.

We will continue to pursue accountability for perpetrators and institutional failures. We will continue to support victim-survivors and their families in ways that recognise the enduring impacts of these crimes, including through better access to information and records, services for adult victim-survivors, and restorative engagement approaches. We will create an environment in which child sexual abuse can be acknowledged and spoken about openly, so that concerns can be raised, heard and acted upon.

Lasting change requires individuals and institutions to confront difficult realities and ensure that silence is not allowed to protect perpetrators or reputations. And we will continue to strengthen the systems, safeguards and culture needed to protect every child and young person attending a Victorian government school.

To every victim-survivor:

We are sorry.

We are sorry that you were sexually assaulted or raped when you were a student in a government school.

We are sorry for the harm done to you – and the impacts you and your loved ones continue to carry.

We are sorry for the failures that allowed this to occur.

No apology can fully capture what was taken from you, your families and loved ones.

No words can undo what was done.

No statement from a Parliament can restore the childhoods, teenage years, opportunities, relationships, and lives that these crimes stole.

But that is not a reason for silence.

For too long, silence protected perpetrators and institutions instead of children.

So today, we name these crimes publicly and plainly.

To every victim-survivor and to those victims who are no longer with us:

You had the right to be safe at school.

Your childhood should have been shaped by safety, care, learning and trust.

Instead, for too many, it was shaped by abuse, fear and betrayal.

We acknowledge the profound impact these crimes have had on you, your families, your loved ones and those who have supported you.

We accept responsibility for the failures that allowed these crimes to occur.

And we are deeply sorry.

Today this Parliament apologises and accepts responsibility, but our responsibility does not end with an apology. As victim-survivors have made clear, an apology cannot stand alone. It must be followed by action. We owe it to those here today, those watching or listening elsewhere, those who have never disclosed and those who are no longer with us. We owe it to every child and young person attending a Victorian government school now and into the future.

Schools do operate with a much stronger child safety framework now. These safeguards matter, but they are not enough. Perpetrators will continue to cultivate trust, test boundaries and manipulate children and adults to gain access and avoid detection. That is why child safety will always be a priority, and our work will continue to help staff, parents and carers recognise warning signs, understand grooming behaviours and raise concerns. School leaders must build cultures where children and young people are heard, concerns are acted on, information is shared, risk is confronted and safety is placed above reputation, discomfort or any sort of defensiveness.

The Department of Education now has a sexual harm response unit and dedicated child safety investigation teams. Strong independent regulation is also essential. We are strengthening the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority’s oversight of schools and their compliance with child safety requirements and the new Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority, which oversees early childhood education services, while the Social Service Regulator now administers the reportable conduct scheme and working with children checks.

We will also continue to support victim-survivors of abuse in our government schools through the practical measures implemented in response to the board of inquiry’s recommendations, including a restorative engagement program for victim-survivors to receive a personal acknowledgement or apology from a senior leader in the Department of Education; a dedicated website and phone line for victim-survivors; policy and guidance for schools responding to historical child sexual abuse; and improved access to school records, including information about the history of government schools that have closed or merged, what records may be available and how to request them.

Victim-survivor voices must remain at the centre of this work. One participant in the Forum for Truth and Recognition described what meaningful engagement requires. They said:

I seek compassionate listening, a willingness to see my truth and a curiosity that may enable learnings that inform improvements in the Victorian public education system, to protect children and adolescents into the future.

I thank the victim-survivors, their families, and the advocates and organisations contributing to the implementation of the board of inquiry’s recommendation and to the forum’s public record. I also acknowledge those who have spoken up in other ways, those who have chosen not to share their experiences and those no longer with us. Every victim-survivor experience matters.

Today is not about the end of our obligations; it is a commitment to apply what we have learned, strengthen child safeguarding, support victim-survivors and keep confronting the hardest parts of our institutional history. We commit to giving meaning to this apology through what we do next.

 Jess WILSON (Kew – Leader of the Opposition) (11:56): I rise to support the motion. I want to begin by acknowledging the victim-survivors who are here with us today and those watching this apology online. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your patience, which has been tested. And thank you for your courage, which has paved the way for today’s historic and long-overdue apology. On behalf of the Liberals and Nationals coalition, I want to say plainly, we are sorry. I say this without reservation or qualification.

Outside the home, a school should be the safest place for a child to be. When we send our children to school, we are trusting that they will have the opportunity to learn the things that they need to know in order to live a good life. But there is a more fundamental trust we place in our schools too, beyond the lessons in the classroom. It is a trust that our children will be safe – that they will be cared for and protected. But for at least 482 Victorian children that trust was betrayed. It was betrayed in the most profound and life altering of ways. It was betrayed because children experienced child sexual abuse while attending Victorian government schools.

There are few crimes that our law and our conscience judge more harshly than child sexual abuse, and rightly so. It is a crime that exploits the inherent trust of a child rather than merely breaking it. It is a crime committed against a child – by definition, someone too young to understand what is happening to them and too powerless to stop it. And it is a crime whose harm does not end with the act itself. It follows survivors through their lives, shaping their relationships, their sense of safety and their sense of self. That is why this Parliament owes survivors more than sympathy. It owes them the truth told fully and a system that will never again allow a child’s safety to be compromised.

Before I touch on the work of the Beaumaris board of inquiry, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the work of my dear friend the member for Sandringham. Building upon the work of Stuart Grimley, a member in the other place between 2018 and 2022, the member for Sandringham took up the mantle in campaigning for a dedicated inquiry into historical sexual abuse at Victorian government schools. The Beaumaris board of inquiry takes its name from Beaumaris Primary School, where a significant number of instances of historical sexual abuse took place. I note that the school is in the electorate of Sandringham, and I pay tribute to the member for Sandringham for adding his voice to those of the many dedicated individuals who have been advocating for many years for an inquiry into child sexual abuse not just at Beaumaris Primary School but, importantly, at many other government schools too. Beaumaris was not the only government school at which child sexual abuse occurred, but Beaumaris has provided the lightning rod moment for acknowledging, listening to and now apologising to all survivors – taking the first step so that the truth could be told and this stain on our state be brought into the light for reckoning.

These advocates, these survivors and their families were forced to wait too long, and that is a failing that I will return to shortly.

First, though, I will address the findings of the board of inquiry. The inquiry handed down its report in February 2024. It is sobering, distressing reading. The board of inquiry found that the Department of Education:

… woefully failed to protect children from the risk of child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools between 1960 and 1994.

The inquiry found that these failings were serious and systemic and put many children at the risk of child sexual abuse. Over 400 government schools have now been named in civil claims or redress applications. That is close to one in three secondary schools operating between 1950 and 1999. This was not an isolated failure. It was systemic, it was widespread and for decades it was quite literally swept under the rug.

The inquiry identified six systemic failures that contributed to the department’s wholly inadequate response. I want to visit each one of these failings because as policymakers and legislators it is essential that we in this place learn these lessons and understand the consequences of these failures.

The first was an absence of policies and procedures. Between 1960 and 1994 the department had no policies or procedures for responding to allegations of child sexual abuse, despite knowing of the risk and having a legislative and regulatory framework that gave it power to discipline staff.

The second was an absence of guidance to school staff. There was no guidance instructing staff how to identify, report, manage, respond to or prevent child sexual abuse.

The third was a culture that prioritised the reputation of the education system over the safety of children. The department routinely moved teachers between schools or into non-teaching roles to manage allegations rather than removing the risk. One convicted offender was moved into an administrative role and banned from teaching for only three years. This finding is a particularly salient one for us as legislators. We must never again allow a situation where a creation of government comes to believe that its purpose is to protect itself rather than those it serves. The Department of Education is a creation of government to provide education to Victorian children in a safe place. It was not created to protect its own reputation or that of the people it hires. We in this place must carry this lesson with us every day in every piece of legislation brought before us for scrutiny and judgement.

The next finding is that a lack of staff training was a contributing factor. Teachers and senior staff were often aware of or suspicious about an individual’s conduct, but the department provided no training to help them recognise the behaviour as abuse, understand its seriousness or know what to do about their suspicions.

Fifth, the inquiry found poor record-keeping and information-sharing practices also contributed. There was no requirement to document disclosures, investigations or the reasons for staff transfers and no consistent approach to sharing information with Victoria Police. As a result, convicted teachers could remain employed, sometimes their teaching registration not even being reviewed. This is an extremely important finding that I would like to take a moment to reflect on, because issues of information sharing and record keeping have been a contributing factor to the sexual abuse of children in Victorian childcare centres in very recent years.

In 2025 a Melbourne childcare worker was charged with more than 150 offences against children in his care – offences he allegedly committed across some 20 centres over several years despite holding a valid working with children check throughout. These horrific instances of child sexual abuse occurred in childcare centres regulated by the government by laws laid down by this Parliament. The government’s review into the matter found systemic failures in information sharing between regulators, legal constraints that limited how quickly risks could be acted on and inadequate resourcing of the oversight system meant to catch exactly this kind of danger. The details differ from the historical child sexual abuse for which we apologise today but the pattern does not. It is clear that we still have lessons to learn in this place about how we will keep children safe.

Finally, the final finding of the board of inquiry in relation to the failures of the Department of Education was that there were no systemic reviews triggered or conducted. At no point – not at the time allegations first emerged, not when further concerns surfaced or advocacy was brought to bear – has the department conducted a review to understand the scale of historical abuse across government schools statewide. This meant patterns involving perpetrators and schools went unexamined, further children were put at risk and survivors were denied the chance to learn whether their experience was part of a wider pattern. For policymakers the lesson is clear: we must always be willing and ready to do whatever it takes to get answers, to shine a light and to bring transparency and accountability. An organisational culture of looking the other way, of avoiding the hard questions and of failing to be adequately self-reflective or self-critical must never be allowed to take place again – not a single Victorian government department, agency or funded organisation. We must always ask the hard questions and ensure they are answered. We must always make sure early warning systems are baked in to organisations and programs so that risk can be identified and mitigated before vulnerable children pay the price.

Earlier in my remarks I stated that the survivors have been forced to wait too long for this day. Today has been a long time coming. That child sexual abuse occurred in state government schools is the first thing for which we apologise today, but the second thing we say sorry for is the second wrong we revisited on survivors: our silence over decades. Survivors have told the Forum for Truth and Recognition and told successive inquiries before it that what compounded the abuse itself was not being believed – being moved on or managed instead of listened to, being treated as a problem for the system that nobody could quite bring themselves to confront rather than as a person of inherent worth and dignity who had been gravely wronged by those who were supposed to care for them. There were people who knew or should have known who did not act, people who were receiving a taxpayer-funded salary to do a job for the public good who instead caused the public immeasurable harm.

To every survivor who disclosed and was not heard or who never felt able to disclose at all, I say sorry. We failed to protect you and we covered up our shame for far too long, and we are sorry for this. To the survivors here today, to those who could not be here and to those who did not live to see this day, I want to say to you: what happened to you is not your shame to carry. As a state we failed you; that is our shame. You were children in the care of the state, and this state failed you. Nothing said in this chamber today can undo that, but I hope that finally being listened to, acknowledged and believed by the Parliament of Victoria is worth something. On behalf of the Liberal and Nationals coalition, I offer my sincerest hope that today’s apology marks an important step toward your healing.

This Parliament said sorry today. Our task now is to make sure that word is honoured in every decision that follows it, that we learn the lessons and never again allow the most vulnerable among us, our children, to be hurt in our care. Children should be safe. They should have their innocence protected by the adults in their lives, and not just the adults in their lives but also the adults who make the decisions that affect their lives. Those adults are us, the people who make the laws in this state. This state failed to keep these children safe. We must learn the lessons, and we must make certain that what has happened in the past is never repeated in the future. We must pledge to do better and honour that pledge every day we come into this place. I commend the motion.

 Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (12:11): Today, as the 60th Parliament of Victoria, we say sorry. We say sorry to every victim-survivor of child sexual abuse in Victorian government schools. I say sorry because it is the right thing to do. To those victim-survivors, to their families and supporters: I am sorry you were not kept safe. I am sorry that when evil was done to you, you could not speak up. I am sorry that when you did speak you were not believed. I am sorry that this state, its employees, its policymakers, its public servants collectively failed to keep you safe when it was the state that was trusted with your care.

The journey to this day has been far too long. The board of inquiry found sexual abuse occurred at Beaumaris Primary School from the 1960s to the end of the 1990s. It found the Department of Education never reviewed those allegations, even as more concerns emerged in 2000 and 2001. Some 20 years later Stuart Grimley, then a member of the Legislative Council, began to listen to survivors, including from Beaumaris. Together with his adviser Olivia Nicholls, they built relationships of trust that others had failed to earn.

On 6 December 2021 one of those survivors, Glen Fearnett, wrote to me. Glen told me what had happened at Beaumaris in the 1970s and in the 1980s and across the education department. He wrote of four offenders at one school. Each moved there after offending elsewhere. Each moved on after being forced out, and each was convicted. He wrote that the scale of it was, in his words, ‘mind-boggling’ and that offenders remained in state schools until 1993, until 1995. He pointed me to the ABC’s Russell Jackson, who spent the time listening to victim-survivors and telling their stories.

I say today that I am ashamed of the reply that I sent Glen that day. I told him his concerns were a matter for Victoria Police, and I urged him in the strongest terms to take them there. There were many reasons for my response at the time, some of them deeply personal. Part of the reason was because of what I had seen and heard working at Catholic Education Melbourne during the Betrayal of Trust inquiry – an inquiry that I commend former Premier Baillieu for establishing and Ms Crozier from the other place for chairing, an inquiry that led to the establishment of the royal commission. I believed then, as I do now, that organisations accused of such crimes should never investigate themselves, but what I failed to recognise in Glen’s email was far simpler and far more important. He was not asking me to investigate or to solve a problem. He was asking me, like every survivor since, simply to listen.

On 21 September 2022 in Queens Hall, Liv introduced me to Glen, the same day that Stuart moved a motion in the Legislative Council calling on the then Premier to apologise and for the government to comply with its own model litigant guidelines. That motion passed the Council unanimously.

After the 2022 election Stuart was not returned. I then made an active decision to pick up where he had left off. In early 2023 on three occasions in this place I sought leave to establish a joint select committee into abuse in government schools. Each time leave was denied. In June of that year the government established the board of inquiry into abuse at Beaumaris Primary School. I was pleased that this action was taken, but I was also somewhat disappointed because the focus remained just Beaumaris. For context, I say ‘just Beaumaris’, but for me it was somewhat personal. I attended Stella Maris primary school in Beaumaris in the early 1990s, just 1.5 kilometres down the road from Beaumaris Primary School, at a time when abuse was still occurring there. As I have said before, Beaumaris is only the tip of the iceberg. That inquiry, driven by victim-survivors and by Stuart, was the necessary lightning rod for something much greater.

In the same way that religious institutions moved clergy from parish to parish, the Department of Education moved its offenders from school to school. The crimes committed were not just at Beaumaris; they were across all government schools, and they were likely equal to or perhaps greater than those committed in non-government institutions. Yet it has taken until 2026 for this Parliament to say sorry. Focusing only on Beaumaris shut other survivors out, like Ingrid from Beaumaris North Primary School, just a kilometre down the road, who wrote to me in February 2023 about the sexual abuse she was subjected to as a child at that school. That is why the government was right to adopt recommendation 3 of the Beaumaris inquiry in full and establish the Forum for Truth and Recognition. That forum’s report has now been tabled, and we await the department’s parallel review and the government’s formal response to both.

Thirty-eight victim-survivors told the forum their stories. Their words matter more than mine ever will. Grant Holland told the forum that sharing his story is scary but, in his words, it means ‘you feel less alone’. James told the forum he wants to be, in his words, ‘a voice that is heard’ so others find courage to speak their truth. Daz Gibbs, first abused at just three years old, told the forum simply: ‘I’m here and I’m alive … I’m doing OK.’ One survivor, known only as Betty, described what was done to her plainly as not an experience but a crime. She had carried that alone for over 30 years before finding the strength to speak. These are not stories from a distant past we can leave behind. They are the lived reality of people in our community whose trust we should never take lightly. I think of Glen, who first wrote to me in 2021, and of Tim, Richard, Ingrid and every survivor who trusted me in this Parliament with their story. Their courage brought us to this day. Our task now is to be worthy of it every day after. This apology is not the end of our obligation, it is the beginning. We owe every survivor more than words; we owe them a system that finally truly protects children.

I must say that an apology like this is never the work of one person. It is an opportunity to remind ourselves that in some way we all stand on the shoulders of those that have gone before us, carrying a great responsibility. To Stuart Grimley and to Olivia Nicholls: thank you for listening and building trust when others did not. To every victim-survivor and your families and supporters who came forward: thank you. To Russell Jackson: thank you for being a journalist, not just a reporter – a journalist that gave voice to survivors when almost no-one else was listening. And thank you to colleagues across the Parliament who stood with survivors in their own way. I especially want to mention the member for Hastings and the member for Melton.

Today we have a chance as a Parliament and as a state to acknowledge the crimes committed against innocent and vulnerable children in our government schools. We cannot undo what has been done, but we can tell the truth about it and make sure it is never buried, dismissed or hidden again. This apology must not be where our efforts end; it must be where they deepen. We owe survivors more than sorrow; we owe them a system that learns, that listens and never looks away again. That is one of the reasons why the opposition has agreed to include mandatory grooming awareness and abuse identification training as part of the working with children check application process.

I also want to say this today: Beaumaris Primary School today is an excellent school with outstanding teaching and learning, with outstanding principal leadership led by David Tapp and his assistant principals Grace and Kelly, who I believe are in the parliamentary building today. These staff are deeply committed to child safety. That is what we owe every survivor – not just an apology for the past, but proof that lessons have been learned and a commitment to treat every Victorian with dignity and with respect.

In closing, this Parliament during this apology today has heard many words. Now the time for words has concluded. From this point, every one of us must be judged solely on our actions.

Motion agreed to in silence, members showing unanimous agreement by standing in their places.

Sitting suspended 12:23 pm until 2:02 pm.

The SPEAKER: Can I acknowledge in the gallery Sunita Thapa, who is a member of the Gandaki Provincial Assembly in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Welcome.