STATEMENTS ON SIGNIFICANT MATTERS
Mrs McINTOSH (Lindsay) (09:12): Eight years ago this month, this parliament did something it should not have had to do. On 22 October 2018, the prime minister of the day, Hon. Scott Morrison, rose in this chamber and, on behalf of the Australian government, this parliament and all Australians, unreservedly apologised to the victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.
The galleries that day were full. Across the country, men and women who had carried a terrible weight for decades, many for most of their lives, stopped to listen. Many of them had never been believed.
Many had been told to stay quiet. Some had been punished for speaking up, and some were not there at all because they did not live to hear their nation say sorry. We should never forget why that apology was made.
It was made because institutions that were meant to protect children failed them. Schools, churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups, foster homes, charities—places that should have been safe became places of fear. When children found the courage to speak, too often they were not believed.
Too often the people who should have acted chose to protect the reputation of the institution over the safety of the child. The apology came after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Sexual Abuse of Children. That commission was established by the Gillard government, and its work was supported across this parliament.
Over five years it heard from thousands of survivors in private sessions. It delivered 409 recommendations. It shone a light, most importantly, into some of the darkest corners of our national life.
But the royal commission did not uncover these crimes on its own. It was the survivors who did that. It was the survivors and the advocates who refused to be silenced and who told their stories again and again, often at great personal cost, until this nation finally listened.
Every reform that followed is owed to their courage. I want to acknowledge them today—those who spoke publicly, those who spoke privately and those who have never spoken of what happened to them and may never do so. This apology was and remains for all of them.
Words spoken by a nation through its parliament carry weight. For many survivors, hearing their country say, 'We believe you and we are sorry,' was a moment of recognition that had been denied to them for a lifetime. But survivors themselves were clear from the beginning that an apology without action is just a piece of paper.
They were right then, and they are right now. That is why the apology was accompanied by action. The National Redress Scheme gave survivors access to recognition, counselling and a direct personal response from the institutions responsible.
The National Office for Child Safety was established to lead national work on prevention. The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations were adopted, and the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse followed. These were important steps, but, eight years on, we must be honest; the work is not finished, and it never will be.
Survivors still tell us that navigating redress can be slow, complex and retraumatising. Some institutions have been too slow to join the scheme or to take up full responsibility. The deep and lasting harm of abuse to mental health, to relationships, to families and to working lives does not end when an application is lodged or a payment is made.
We know that abuse is not only a problem of the past. Recent revelations involving those entrusted with the care of very young children have shocked parents right across this country. They have reminded every one of us that predators seek out the places where children gather and that they exploit every gap in our systems, our checks and our vigilance.
The online world has created new risks our institutions could not have imagined a generation ago. Offenders now reach children through the devices in their pockets and in their bedrooms. Our laws, our law enforcement agencies and our child safety systems must keep pace.
So the lesson of the apology is clear. Vigilance is a permanent duty. It means institutions putting the safety of children ahead of their own reputations every single time.
It means working-with-children checks and screening systems that actually work and that talk to each other across the states. It means listening to children when they speak up, and acting when they do. It means giving our police and the courts the tools and resources they need to pursue offenders without fear or favour.
And it means standing by survivors not just on anniversaries like today but every single day, with timely redress, accessible support and a justice system that treats them with dignity. Protecting children is not a partisan issue. It never has been.
The apology was supported across this chamber, and the responsibility that flows from it belongs to each and every one of us in this place, in government and in opposition, at every level of government, and in every community and organisation that cares for children. Eight years ago, this nation said sorry. We said we believed survivors.
We said we could do better. On this anniversary, we renew that promise. To every survivor listening today: we have not forgotten you, we have not forgotten what was done to you and we will not stop working to ensure it never happens to another child.
I commend the anniversary to the House.