Australia to apologise for child abuse in government homes
Updated
Men and women who suffered abuse as children while they were in State care, have expressed relief that the Australian Government plans to say sorry to them.
The Government says it will not be setting up a compensation fund, arguing that is entirely a matter for the states. Legal experts say that a formal apology won't change how the courts view financial claims.
Presenter: Brendan Trembath
Speakers: Frank Golding, Vice President of the National Care Leavers Association of Australia; Jenny Macklin, Community Services Minister; Professor Susan Kneebone, Monash University's Faculty of Law
- Listen:
- Windows Media
TREMBATH: They are sometimes called 'the forgotten Australians', the estimated half a million men and women who as children were placed in foster homes, orphanages and other institutions.
Frank Golding was brought up this way.
GOLDING: I was in the Ballarat orphanage in Victoria for over a decade.
TREMBATH: It wasn't a happy experience for him or many others.
GOLDING: Well, we all suffered tough discipline but I was particularly taken by the traumatic impact, long lasting impact of those who suffered sexual abuse.
TREMBATH: Frank Golding is now the Vice President of the National Care Leavers Association of Australia.
He is excited that the Federal Government says it will now apologise to those who suffered as children in state care.
When the Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin announced the apology yesterday she said it was not expected to open the floodgates for legal claims.
MACKLIN: Well, many of the previous care providers are in fact acting on that and some of the states have started to act on that, so where that's a decision that they take, that's entirely a matter for them.
TREMBATH: Western Australia is one of the states which has agreed to make payments to victims.
The government says more than 10,000 applications were received by the end of April.
New South Wales and Victoria take a different approach and leave claims for the courts to determine.
Professor Susan Kneebone from Monash University's Faculty of Law doubts there will be a flood of claims when the Federal Government does apologise.
KNEEBONE: I would imagine it would be worded very careful so as to not make any admission of liability or to accept any responsibility for the policies of past governments. So everything will turn upon exactly how the apology is phrased.
TREMBATH: In the common mind, there's a reluctance to sometimes apologise at the scene of a car accident, because people assume it might be a statement of guilt. Is this at work here, where they're worried about the legal ramifications?
KNEEBONE: Absolutely, and I'm sure that's been part of the reluctance of past governments to apologise but I think the current government is prepared to say, 'We apologise and we recognise the pain that's been caused to you, but at the same time we don't accept any legal liability', and I really think that's what the apology is really about, about helping the victim to move on.
TREMBATH: The New South Wales Law Society says a Federal apology won't change the landscape of the law.
The New South Wales Law Society President Joe Cantanzariti says a Federal apology won't change the landscape of the law.
Saying sorry though is deeply symbolic to people raised in state care such as Frank Golding.
GOLDING: It's a way of the nation saying we are really sorry for this really tragic element of history.
TREMBATH: Frank Golding had to live in an orphanage and he wasn't even an orphan.
His parents would visit during the year.
GOLDING: Most of the children in institutions were not orphans. I would say probably less than 10 per cent were there actual orphans, so they were there for a variety of reasons to do with family breakdown, alcoholism, violence in the family and that sort of thing. And they were sometimes taken away from the parents and made wards of the State, because the State believed that they could do a better job of bringing up the children than the parents could.
TREMBATH: The Federal Government plans to issue its apology before the end of the year.
