Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (16:03): Betrayal of Trust revealed a cover-up that killed. The investigation was into crime, not faith, but like the journey through Dante’s Inferno the deeper the descent, the more horrific the suffering. As the deputy chair of that inquiry I had the privilege of tabling the report in this house in 2013. I say that to mark the point that it was seven years ago.

It revealed wilful blindness, cultures of concealment and noble cause corruption—a misplaced sense of loyalty to an institution above justice to individuals. Those revelations helped lead to the royal commission that nationally echoed these themes, these findings and these revelations, and what is critical is we are still fighting for justice today, as a number of other members have revealed in their contributions.

I do want to pick up that the Attorney-General sent out a letter just in the last few days. To me, I responded straightaway. It beggars belief that this is still being done, but the Attorney-General said that she has written to institutions who have not signed up to the national redress scheme for institutional sexual abuse. Without a commitment to sign up by 30 June—that is, two weeks from today—institutions will be named and shamed and will risk their government funding.

After all that has been revealed, after all that we have found, I use this contribution to appeal to these institutions: can you do the right thing finally? Do not be dragged kicking and screaming. Do not continue to take a legalistic view to argue at every point. The case has clearly been established. I do want to address what the Attorney-General said. She has written to these institutions and said:

As you may be aware, in my role as Attorney-General, I am also the Minister responsible for the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse … in Victoria.

I have been informed that your organisation has been named in one or more redress applications and that while discussions have commenced with the Scheme Operator, your organisation has yet to join the Scheme. The Victorian Government is strongly committed to justice for survivors. Our position is that every organisation named in a redress application that has the capacity to join the Scheme should do so immediately.

And I totally endorse this proposition.

I am aware that the Commonwealth Government wrote to you requiring written confirmation of your organisation’s intention to join the Scheme. Should you not provide that confirmation by 30 June—

that is in two weeks—

… or provide confirmation but not join …

the scheme by the end of this year

… your organisation will be publicly identified, and sanctions may be applied by relevant jurisdictions. This may include changes to the charitable status of organisations.

So this is where we have gotten to, and it should not have gotten to this position. As the Attorney says:

The Victorian Government will no longer fund organisations that decide not to join the Scheme and eligibility for future funding will also be contingent on named organisations meeting their redress obligations. Changes are being made to Victorian funding instruments and guidelines to reflect this.

So there it is: still today the fight continues to get the organisations to deliver redress. We have heard from the member for Caulfield and the member for Box Hill as well about the fight to actually have scrutiny and accountability with the Malka Leifer case.

One of the critical issues was the betrayal of trust that each individual felt about institutions, and the inquiry is one of the best things that this Parliament has done. We have had bipartisanship. We have had three premiers—Ted Baillieu, who instigated the inquiry, and he still continues outside the Parliament in advocating and trying to get a resolution to the Malka Leifer case; Denis Napthine; and the current Premier—and all they have done, and the attorneys-general, who have worked with them to get the legislation through, and in this legislation today the Minister for Education.

I do want to acknowledge my colleagues on the Betrayal of Trust inquiry. Georgie Crozier in the upper house was the chair. The member for Thomaston was fantastic. These are really important pieces of work that we do as MPs, and I know, Deputy Speaker, you understand how difficult a lot of these issues are. There was the member for Ferntree Gully; there was Andrea Coote in the upper house and David O’Brien from the National Party. David has since appeared as an advocate before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and continues in his legal work to try and get justice as well. That is what this journey has been and that is what it has taken.

This issue has been across three parliaments, and I really want to let some of the MPs who have come in in later parliaments be taken back to the day when we were able to table this report. Middle-aged men wept with joy. Women silenced by unspeakable crimes since they were girls raised three cheers for the Victorian Parliament in 2013 on the steps when I told them that survivors of child sexual abuse had bipartisan support and we had secured that support to implement all recommendations. The findings of the inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other non-government organisations had shown that heinous crimes were exposed, blighted lives acknowledged and remedies agreed across the political divide, and again in today’s contributions I think that is really important for people to hear. Victims abused physically, emotionally and sexually as innocent children felt vindicated after summoning the fortitude as adults to testify. Survivors waved red balloons and hugged each other during the rally of hope on the steps of the Victorian Parliament in recognition that after so much suffering at the hands of institutions a measure of trust had finally been restored.

But the fight goes on, and we need to keep up the advocacy. From the government’s perspective it is fantastic what the Andrews Labor government has done, right through a whole series and raft of reforms. And it is great to have that not just bipartisan support but support across everybody in the Parliament. To take you back to what it means—I was astounded and wrote an article about this on 11 January 2019 in the Australian newspaper, and what it said was:

Australia’s parliaments must enforce compensation to survivors of child sexual abuse. Revelations by The Australian that only 28 abuse victims have been compensated under the $4 billion redress scheme, despite 2335 people applying, because key states and institutions have been slow to commit, are incredible.

We are still two weeks out from the deadline, and the Attorney-General in the state of Victoria is still writing to them to say, ‘You’re going to be named and shamed if you don’t do the right thing’. The article continues:

I write on behalf of a constituent still waiting, whose ordeal echoes across Australia and internationally. Stephanie could not speak when she first came to the Victorian parliament. The enormity of bearing witness to the physical, emotional and sexual abuse she suffered as a ward of the state was unbearable. Fearful and overwhelmed … she regressed to her childhood self, the innocent girl shamed by her abuse and a misplaced sense of guilt.

Remember, the victims were innocent. Their fortitude has been humbling in testifying. The survivors were relying on Parliament to be the institution that would not fail them as so many others had. She went through what had happened in her life, and I am glad to say that her set of circumstances has been resolved. She has finally won that case. But I also find it remarkable that we are still to this day arguing with institutions to sign up for the redress scheme.

It really is a measure of our humanity to be able to address this and to be able to bring the force of the law, to keep the commitment up to bring people to justice and to give the people whose lives have been blighted—and some, remember, could not outrun the shadow of their abuse—a better chance in life.