Care leavers to receive apology

NEXT Thursday will mark an occasion decades in the making with Premier Jacinta Allan set to make a formal apology towards those who experienced institutionalised abuse and neglect under state care.

Taking place at 11.30am, the gesture will be livestreamed at the Mercure Ballarat and address more than 90,000 Victorian care leavers who entered the system between 1928 and 1990.

A State Government spokesperson said the occasion is about addressing the mistreatment experienced by many in institutional care.

“The Allan Labor Government is acknowledging the trauma of historical abuse and neglect that too many Victorian children experienced while placed in institutional care,” the spokesperson said.

“Nobody deserves the harrowing abuse that was the experience of too many Victorian children before 1990.

“The Government will establish a redress scheme and deliver a formal apology to Victorians who were placed in orphanages, children’s homes and missions and experienced physical, psychological, and emotional abuse or neglect.”

One the attendees expecting to attend the event, Jenny, was placed in state care between 1990 and 1991.

Forced out home by her mother at age 14, she was placed in more than a dozen foster homes, and said the experience proved an alienating one.

“I’d be in these horrible places where I’m in a strange environment with a strange family that I don’t know,” she said. “I was always excluded and it was always made clear I wasn’t part of their system.”

Faced with going to the Winlaton Youth Training Centre, Jenny sought to escape the foster system by falling pregnant at 15 years old, which left her in an abusive relationship with the father for more than four years.

“I ended up in 13 or 14 different women’s refuges and was chased out every time with a knife,” she said.

“What made the government think it was alright to leave a 15-year-old to go off with this man who was 19, had a history of assault and had been in Turana Youth Training Centre?

“There was no support. The department just said off you go. My daughter was born four months later and they got involved again three weeks after that due to my lack of parenting.”

Jenny’s first two children were taken into custody by the Department of Human Services when the former was two-and-a-half and the latter eight months old.

She remained fearful that her following two sons, now adults, would see a similar fate during their childhoods, and said her experiences as a care leaver have impacted her life ever since.

“I have a general hardcore distrust of any single human being I come across for the rest of my life,” she said.

“I’ve never been able to work or function properly in society. You were never taught how to be an adult. You were never taught how to be a functioning member of society or how to parent.”

After more than 30 years, Jenny said she hopes a formal apology can lead to a better awareness of hers and others’ experiences.

“I’m hoping it will go a long way to getting some understanding,” she said.

“I spoke to someone at the Department of Families, Fairness, and Housing. He said we’ll all be there from the Ballarat office, they’ll be providing councillors and heaps of support on the day too.

“It’d be nice down the track to know if there’s going to be some kind of financial way to make up for the department’s damage because they weren’t there to support me when I needed them.”

A dedicated redress scheme for care leavers was announced by the State Government in late 2022 alongside the apology, but the program is yet to be rolled out more than a year later.

The State Government spokesperson said the program is still on the way.

“The Government will work with pre-1990 care leavers and key stakeholders to develop the scheme in a process that will begin shortly,” the spokesperson said.

“Advance payments are providing early access to the care leaver redress scheme for those who are critically or terminally ill.”

Those unable to attend the livestream events can still view the apology via the Parliament of Victoria website.

If you or someone you know is dealing with issues resulting from sexual or physical abuse, help is available from CASA on 1800 806 292 or casacv.org.au, Lifeline on 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au, and 1800 Respect on 1800 737 732.