South Australian Labor today joins with our national leaders to apologise to children abused in state care.
Just over ten years ago, the then Premier Mike Rann made an apology to children abused in state care on behalf of all South Australians.
He was joined in that apology at Parliament House on 17 June 2006 by the then State Liberal Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith, stating:
“Only those who have been subject to this kind of abuse or neglect will ever be able to fully understand what it means to have experienced these abhorrent acts.”
“You have been listened to and believed and this Parliament now commits itself to righting the wrongs of the past.”
“To all those who experienced abuse in state care, we are sorry. To those who witnessed these abuses, we are sorry. To those who were not believed when trying to report these abuses, we are sorry. For the pain shared by loved ones, husbands and wives, partners, brothers and sisters, parents and, importantly, their children, we are sorry.”
Today’s national apology has arisen from the federal Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, set up in 2013 under the Gillard Labor Government.
Quotes attributable to Shadow Minister for Child Protection Jayne Stinson
SA Labor joins with our national leaders in reiterating the apology made in this state ten years ago. That apology is as valid now as ever.
We are deeply sorry for the horrible injustices wrought upon our most vulnerable little children and the lasting trauma they and their families have endured.
We recommit ourselves to listening to the voices of survivors and doing all we can to right the wrongs of the past. We must work together each day to ensure such terrible crimes against little children never happen again.