Senator John Woodley
Portfolio: Family & Community Services
| Dated: 30 Jun 1999
Location: Parliament
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Senator Woodley speaks on the abuse of children in Queensland Institutions. |
On Tuesday, 8 June, the report of the Forde Commission inquiry into the Abuse of children in Queensland institutions was tabled in the Queensland parliament. As the Australian Democrat responsible for this portfolio, I want to place on the public record our complete support for the inquiry's 42 recommendations, some of which I shall touch on in this speech, and also my own personal support for the Premier in making sure that this commission of inquiry took place.
Before I do that, I want to congratulate not only the Premier but also the government for establishing this much needed inquiry nearly 12 months ago. I would also like to congratulate Commissioner Leneen Forde and her fellow commissioners and staff for the manner in which they conducted this inquiry and produced such a comprehensive report. This was an inquiry that was born of necessity and in considerable controversy. I will say a little bit more about that as well. The commission's findings are daunting, heart wrenching and overdue. In the foreword to her report, Mrs Forde said:
I have been impressed by the courage of those who came forward, often moved by the hardship they have endured, and saddened that such abuses were somehow permitted to take place. The accounts that I have heard and read have left a lasting impression, and I will never forget them.
For all those who came forward to tell their stories, and to all the victims of abuse in institutions, I dedicate this report to you, and hope that it will be a small step on the long road to healing and reparation.
Might I also add that we could have picked no-one better to conduct this inquiry than the former governor of Queensland, Leneen Forde, whose own commitment to these kinds of issues is well known; I commend her. In the conclusion to her report, Mrs Forde said:
I urge all Queenslanders to contemplate the experiences of children in institutions, how it came to pass that many of them were abused and mistreated, and why it has taken so long for their stories to be told.
It was society that failed those children. In acknowledging that, we must ensure that the same wrongs are not repeated, and that this inquiry has a positive outcome.
The Democrats endorse those sentiments wholeheartedly. The harrowing stories recounted in the Forde report should concern this chamber greatly, because the child abuse occurred against children under the guardianship of the state and the church. Where there should have been a haven, too many children found terror and abuse.
The abuse took many forms. It was unrestrained in some cases because it was perpetrated on defenceless children who had nowhere to run or hide, nowhere to seek refuge, only to endure in silence year after year. The scars inflicted on their very young minds are indelible, and for that we should all feel a very deep shame.
I was moved by some of the scenes at Parliament House, where the victims were granted permission to finally stop grieving. For some it must have been a rebirth, and their journey towards self-esteem and community acceptance had reached a new stage when the Queensland parliament, through the commission, accepted their stories and the Queensland government gave a commitment to implement the wide ranging recommendations born out of their suffering. Out of their personal tragedies and suffering in their youth;and from living with their nightmares until they could speak of them publicly;some good had finally come to them as adults.
Let me read into the record some of the recommendations of the report. They include: closing the Sir Leslie Wilson Youth Detention Centre by the end of 2000; refurbishing the John Oxley and Cleveland youth detention centres, as a matter of urgency; the conduct of regular inspection and monitoring of residential care facilities and juvenile detention centres, as specified by legislation; the provision of advocacy services for young people in institutions; the mandatory reporting of all abusive situations that come to the attention of staff; and police investigations into some cases of abuse.
Let me add that, because of my own situation and my previous parallel occupation, I feel a deep shame on behalf of the various churches of Queensland that some of that abuse occurred in church run institutions. I do not single out any church in particular, because nearly all of the church run institutions had one case or more of this kind of abuse.
It cannot go unsaid that the Queensland government and this chamber know that this story is unfinished. The facts of the abuse, and the culture that produced the abuse, were revealed by whistleblowers. I include here someone whom I have spoken about on many occasions, Mr Kevin Lindeberg. For years we have seen the struggle of Mr Lindeberg to reveal the truth about the shredding of the Heiner inquiry documents—documents that we now know revealed the full extent of the information that the Queensland government had on the abuse of children in state institutions. Also worthy of mention are journalists Mr Bruce Grundy of the Weekend Independent and Mr Michael Ware of the Courier-Mail. Both of these people, at some cost to themselves, persisted in revealing the truth and the attempt to cover up the truth.
I want to finish this speech on a positive note. The Beattie government is to be commended for establishing the Forde inquiry. It was an act of courage and decency. Justice, in large measure, has been done for many people who suffered abuse as children when they should have been loved and cared for. If government is about anything, it should be about caring for our children.
But I say to the Queensland government, and even to this chamber: there is still serious unfinished business to attend to concerning the Heiner shredding. The shredding of the Heiner report is part of the reason that this abuse went on for so long without intervention. In that context, the culture of these institutions went unchallenged for all those extra years. The healing then has also taken longer. We owe it to the victims not to regard this report as the end of the matter.
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Information provided by the Australian Parliamentary Library.
This document is of Draft Status
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