Senator HUMPHRIES (Australian Capital Territory) (1.22 pm)—Thank you, Mr President, for the chance to support the motion which is before the Senate today. Like others who have spoken in this debate, I am deeply grateful to have been a member of the federal parliament on this day, when we take the step of acknowledging the hurt inflicted on so many hundreds of thousands of Australians by virtue of the policies pursued in institutions run throughout this country.
I am glad to have been here to have shared, to have heard retold, the stories of so many people who sought and deserved, but did not receive, the assistance of Australians when they were young and vulnerable. Sometimes, when we sit in this place making decisions and reporting on things, the ivory tower concept makes us wonder how what we do here translates onto the streets of Australia. In this particular instance, the work of the Community Affairs Committee did not need much translation. The people who came to us to tell us their stories translated the reality of what we were talking about beautifully in our minds.
I see some of the people who told me their personal stories here in the gallery today. I am very grateful to them for sharing deeply intimate details of their lives in order to make real for us their unimaginable childhood experiences. I see Patrick in the gallery. He cannot see me—Patrick, wave to me—but he can at least hear me. Patrick was a child migrant who came to this country and experienced some dreadful things but who has used his experience to build a different life and make a difference in his community. For so many of the so-called Forgotten Australians—now ‘Remembered Australians’—and former child migrants, this has been a positive pathway for them to pursue. We acknowledge today that many could not pursue that pathway because they were too badly affected, too badly hurt, by their experience. I am glad for the opportunity to acknowledge today the courage, tenacity and thirst for justice which were characteristic of many of the people who came before our committee wanting to make a difference and wanting to support those who had had similar experiences to them. They could be forgiven for turning their backs on a society which appeared to turn its back on them when they needed support but they have not done that.
It is true that not all the stories of children in institutional care were wholly tragic. It is true that some children in institutions, on balance, had a positive experience. Some people who looked after them were good people and good carers. But no survey of the evidence can fail to conclude that there were, in too many institutions and by too many individuals, horrific and consistent failures to provide proper care and protection to innocent and vulnerable people. In some institutions there was a culture which could only be described as evil. It is that failure to nurture, care for, respect and love the children in those institutions that has to be atoned for today, not only because it inflicted such damage on those children—damage which, as has been said, has had repercussions through generations—but because it is a powerful reminder to all of us in this parliament of why a relentless focus on the best interests of children must be at the centre of all social policy that we discuss, debate, consider and support. To do anything less would be to betray the sad experiences of so many people who passed through institutional care in the 20th century.
I want to use my short time to acknowledge that, for many of these people, the experience of being in a so-called ‘home’ was an experience of isolation, of separation. For a child, being locked away somewhere creates a sense of being punished, of having done something wrong—they feel they have been locked away because of something to do with them. When, on telling the story of what had happened to them, they were further not believed, that exacerbated that sense that there was something wrong with them for having been in those places.
I see the apology today as a chance to say to all of those people that that element of blame, of personal wrongdoing, is wiped away. It was never true. We acknowledge that it was others’ failings that led to them being in those places, that they are more than welcome to be full, participating members of Australian society, that they are not outsiders, that they are people with a great role to play and that their experience of suffering is an experience that we should build on to make a difference. I am confident that, with the apology today, that will be the case.
I also have to say that—as Senator Moore, Senator Siewert and others have pointed out—we have much unfinished business here. This apology is not the end. Today, sadly, only half of the Australian states have actually set up compensation schemes. I can understand people being cynical about compensation; I am generally cynical about compensation schemes. But, in this case, the argument for financial redress is absolutely overwhelming. What greater loss can there be to a person than the loss of their innocence and their childhood? What could possibly repay people for that loss? The question of redress needs to be tackled directly and immediately by those Australian states which have not yet done so, and those states that have schemes with problems should address those problems by talking to the people who need, who rely on, the schemes.
I also need to say that there are still shortcomings in the responses of the charities and churches that were responsible for running so many of the institutions we have discussed in these reports. They could do much more to strengthen the assistance they provide to their former charges, to extend a hand of assistance that would allow these people to regain that place in Australian society which they crave.
Senator Moore was right to suggest that we have all been changed by this experience—not changed as much as those people who passed through institutions as we have only a dim reflection to behold of what happened to them. We have the power to make a difference through what we do in this place, and that is absolutely what I and other members of the committee, former and present, will do as a result of our experience on these inquiries. We particularly need to ask ourselves how we can make sure that the 30,000 or so Australians who remain in out-of-home care of one sort or another can be assisted never to experience what those in institutional care experienced. I pay tribute to these people, I thank them for their candour and their courage and I look forward to working with them in a variety of ways in the future to learn valuable lessons from this experience and build a better future for children.
Question agreed to.
