Joint statement

Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party has welcomed today’s long overdue state government commitment to deliver financial redress for people who, as children, experienced physical, psychological and emotional abuse in Victorian orphanages.

MPs Tania Maxwell and Stuart Grimley have long championed Care Leavers Australasia Network’s campaign for support, regularly pressing the case in Parliament to Premier Daniel Andrews and Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes and supporting CLAN’s advocacy to ministers.

Premier Daniel Andrews today said the government would:

• establish a redress scheme for those children placed in care between 1928 and 1990 because of economic stress, social disadvantage, being orphaned, having a single parent or parental mental illness
• invest $2.9 million to co-design the scheme
• provide support and – if re-elected in November – deliver a formal apology to Victorians placed in orphanages, children’s homes and missions who experienced physical, psychological and emotional abuse or neglect.
• include urgent hardship payments of up to $10,000 for care leavers in exceptional circumstances

Comments by Stuart Grimley MP – Western Victoria

On the eve of a state election, I welcome the announcement of redress and another apology for CLAN and other care leavers. This is a matter that Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party has been championing for years.

Congratulations to Leonie Sheedy and the incredible volunteers who’ve never wavered in their solidarity with other CLAN members and have fought the fight.

But it’s bittersweet for those who suffered historical child sexual abuse in government schools – enabled by the Education Department’s systematic shuffling of alleged and convicted paedophiles to other locations.

For these former school children, we’ve also been fighting for an apology for a long time, including five in-person meetings with the Premier’s office since May this year.

The Legislative Council – including the government – supported and passed my motion in September to require the Premier to apologise to such survivors and start complying with the Model Litigant Guidelines. Yet we’ve heard nothing, and our phone calls go unanswered.

So all of these adults, once children, need a clear commitment for that apology. Without it the government is not staying true to its word.

Comments by Tania Maxwell MP – Northern Victoria

On May 10, this year, I asked Premier Daniel Andrews MP to establish a redress scheme for care leavers.

The government has announced other schemes for those harmed by historical state policies and practices – for mothers who had their children forcibly removed in the historical practice of adoption for children born out of wedlock, as well as reparations for Aboriginal Victorians forcibly removed from their families before 1977.

These schemes provide $100,000 in redress to each person who experienced harm by these practices.

On August 17, I put a similar question to Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes, who replied that ‘the government will continue to explore policies and program options…’

Today’s announcement is welcome, but so late, Premier, and too late for too many.

As CLAN acting president Rhonda Janetzki, from Wodonga, told me at Parliament in August, ‘We are old, Tania, we’re becoming frail, and people are dying while we wait and wait and wait for redress’.

Our advocacy

Adjournment speech May 10, 2022

Media statement May 11, 2022

Question to Attorney General August 17, 2022

Media statement August 30, 2022

Adjournment speech August 31, 2022