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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 962 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

That has upset people. Maybe it was unclear in the way it was put or maybe Mr Cornwell still supports the way he stated that. I think it is an unfortunate thing to have said. I know it has upset parents whose children have been abused, and it has upset other family members who have contacted my office over the last couple of days. Mr Cornwell says:

I do not know that parents are seeking to blame the government or society-

(Extension of time granted.) It is also incredibly disrespectful to say that when you are talking about abuse of children and their families and how they deal with this trauma in their lives. It is an offensive thing to say. Even if people are hysterical, maybe they have a reason. I do not think that is a helpful thing to say. It does not understand or acknowledge the depth of the trauma that is experienced around these issues, not only by those who are abused but all those around them who love them.

The letter goes on:

That is blame, and I do not think that is a good thing to have said. I am not going to back away from my condemnation of the words in this letter, although not all of them. As I said, there are some points there that are reasonable. The letter has not been well thought out. Maybe Mr Cornwell did not mean it in the way he said it; maybe he did. Maybe he sincerely believes that the freer family is the problem.

My understanding of the research is that many more people are disclosing that they have been abused or are being abused, although not nearly enough who are being abused are doing so. More people are prepared to speak about abuse having happened. Very often their abuse happened within nuclear, so-called safe families or extended families. The definition of family has to be broad here.

People are disclosing more now, and that is one of the important factors to be taken into account. It does not necessarily mean that abuse is happening more often. It is just that we are understanding how often it happens and the consequences of that. That is a good thing. That is part of the opening up of the whole discussion.

I have quite a lot of quotes here from the ACT Law Reform Commission, but I have already asked for an extension of time, so I would just refer members to the 2001 ACT Law Reform Commission report and other reports they will find through this Assembly. I am happy to give people other references if they are interested in finding out more about this issue. It is an important discussion. I am sorry it has had to come up in this context, but it is a good thing that it is in our Assembly again. It is an opportunity for us to talk about it.

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