Good evening.
I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we meet, the Wurundjeri peoples, and pay my respects to elders past and present.
I extend that acknowledgement to all First Nations peoples joining us today.
I would also like to acknowledge all survivors of child sexual abuse, there courage and resilience, including those with us today.
I would like to acknowledge:
- The three National Survivor Day ambassadors with us today, Cindy McDougall, Glen Fearnett, and Nicole Meyer;
- Victorian parliamentary colleagues, including Premier Jacinta Allan MP; Mr Ted Ballieu AO and your parliamentary hosts, Mr Paul Mercurio MP and Mr Brad Rowswell MP; and
- In Good Faith Foundation CEO, Claire Leaney, who is a driving force behind events to draw attention to child sexual abuse.
To the survivors, I pay tribute to your great strength and fortitude, including in the difficult task of sharing your experiences, such as those we heard.
It is humbling to see your resilience, and deeply moving to hear what you have endured - what no person should ever have to go through.
I recognise the personal bravery and determination it must take to entrust and relive your experiences to stop this from being repeated, and I thank you for sharing them.
Every story, every voice, every life matters - as is the call to action of National Survivors Day.
National Survivors Day was established in 2022 as an initiative of In Good Faith Foundation and is an annual opportunity to recognise the resilience and strength of survivors and advocates, to raise awareness of sexual violence and institutional abuse, and to reaffirm the need for action to better support survivors and prevent such abuses from occurring in the future.
A key objective of National Survivors Day is about removing the stigma associated with disclosing abuse and promoting broader societal awareness of abuse.
To the ambassadors with us today, Nicole, Glen and Cindy - your courage, strength and advocacy helps towards this goal by breaking down the stigma associated with this abuse and lifting institutionalised childhood sexual abuse out of the shadows.
By reducing stigma we know survivors are more likely to come forward and seek support and it's harder for perpetrators to hide. By reducing stigma survivors know they are not alone.
And if we continue to talk about this abuse and bring public awareness to it, our ability to prevent it from happening in the future is greater.
The ambassadors here today, and other survivors, have not only been critical in reducing stigma and public awareness but have been instrumental to advocating to governments and institutions for systemic change.
The Royal Commission assisted in bringing institutional child sexual abuse, and the failure of institutions and governments to prevent and respond, into the forefront of public awareness - and ensured no survivor felt that they would not be believed.
On 22 October 2018, the Government also made an unreserved apology to all victims and survivors of institutional child abuse, and committed to do better by our nation's children - and each year we recognise this and continue to bring awareness to the Royal Commission and the lifelong impacts of institutional child sexual abuse.
However, we must continue to progress this work. The findings of the Royal Commission are the beginning, not the end, when it comes to institutionalised child sexual abuse.
Through the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse, led by the Attorney General, our Government is continuing the work of the Royal Commission to prevent institutional child sexual abuse.
The National Strategy responds to over 100 recommendations from the Royal Commission to reduce the risk, extent and impact of child sexual abuse and related harms and see all children and young people be protected and safe from sexual abuse.
Through its action plans we are working to raise public awareness, support victims and survivors and implement national measures to prevent this abuse.
Many of you would no doubt have seen our national advertising campaign to prevent child sexual abuse. The campaign called Let's End Child Sexual Abuse One Talk at a Time provides examples of the conversations adults can have with their children and the young people in their lives about child sexual abuse, in an effort to prevent it.
And the National Centre is also doing really important work in prevention along with its work to increase awareness, reduce stigma for survivors, build workforce capability to identify and respond to child sexual abuse, and develop better intervention and service models through research and evaluation.
While we're doing work on prevention, we also recognise the work of the National Centre to contribute to increasing awareness and
The National Centre, through its survivor-led colleges, amplifies the voices the survivors and advocates in its work to reduce the stigma around institutional child sexual abuse.
I have also taken active steps and worked directly with survivors and advocated to ensure the National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse can be built and provide an enduring place of recognition, reflection healing, and educate future generations about institutional child sexual abuse.
The Memorial will be located on Acton Peninsula in Canberra with construction of the Memorial is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2026.
Many of you will be aware of the National Redress Scheme, which has now received more than 50,000 applications from people who have experienced institutional child abuse, providing an opportunity for them to connect with specialised support and receive a direct response or redress.
We are determined to deliver a Redress Scheme that is timely, trauma informed, accessible and above all, survivor-focused.
We have invested over $153 million in Redress Support Services through to 2027 to support survivors through every step of engaging with the Scheme and have made many critical improvements following its Second Year Review to make it easier for survivors to apply.
And I would particularly like to thank In Good Faith for their work in being a Redress Support Service providing important services to those applying for access to the Scheme.
We remain committed to continually improving the Scheme - just today confirming that a redress payment will be exempt from residential aged care means testing from 1 January 2025.
By making this change we are ensuring that survivors are not financially disadvantaged and are rectifying a grossly unfair unintended consequence.
Our Government is firm in our commitment to recognise, support, listen to and honour all those who have experienced institutional child abuse or sexual violence.
We will continue to work with survivors, with children, families and advocates, service providers and government and non-government organisations to improve supports, strengthen our systems and better protect women and children from harm.
Hearing your experiences, supporting you and also breaking down the stigma of discussing institutionalised child sexual abuse on days like National Survivor Day - but also every day - is the way forward.
Thank you.
