PM To Deliver National Apology To Thousands Of Sexual Abuse Victims Today

Museum and national resource centre


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A museum and national research centre will be announced as part of a national apology to thousands child sexual abuse victims.

Hundreds of survivors will on Monday head to Canberra where Prime Minister Scott Morrison will say they have been believed and institutions failed them.

The national museum will aim to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse, displaying the history so the nation does not forget the untold horrors they experienced.

The research centre will look to raise awareness and understanding of the impacts of child sexual abuse, support help seeking and guide best practice for training and other services.

The government will also commit to reporting every year for the next five years on the progress of the royal commission's recommendations.

Care Leavers Australia Network chief executive Leonie Sheedy wants the government to remove the charity tax exemption from institutions still deciding whether to opt in to the national redress scheme for victims.

She says she's never healed from being abused.

"You can learn to live with it, but it never goes away. It will be with me and all care leavers until the day that they put the lid on the coffin," Ms Sheedy told the ABC on Monday.

The apology follows the release of last year's report by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnson said survivors had made it clear they wanted the commission recommendations fully implemented.

"There is a lot of anger in the community," she told Sky News.

"They've made it very clear they want these recommendations implemented as they were intended and it's yet to see whether the government will actually do that."

The government has accepted 104 of the 122 recommendations handed down by the royal commission, with the other 18 being closely examined in consultation with states and territories.

Mr Morrison's apology in parliament - due at 11am - will be followed by an address from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten before the House of Representatives is adjourned.

Question time has been moved back half an hour to 2.30pm.

Senior Labor frontbencher Tony Burke said no one can underestimate what the apology would mean to victims.

"The tone of the day will be quite different to what a normal parliamentary day will be - and it needs to be," Mr Burke told ABC Radio on Monday.

"People have been waiting so long to hear those words: 'we believe you'."

 

21 October 2018




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