http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=49ASSvrLv1E 28 February 2006 Video text for Canadian Appeal To begin with, thank you Mr Roch Longueepee and Internations Justice Federation for this opportunity to address the people of Canada on the need for inquiries into institutional child abuse. I am pleased to be asked to help persuade the politicians, governments and bureaucrats of Canada of the need for a meaningful response to this issue. To take up the struggle to have past wrongs redressed is courageous. There can be no better vision than to work toward ensuring future generations of children and young people are not subject to the same harm.

The impact of childhood trauma across the lifespan affects hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

It is not just the legions of children across the world who are child soldiers, child slaves and child prostitutes who will carry lifelong trauma with them, but all those children harmed in families or institutions whose childhood trauma will blight their adult lives. Its huge personal social and economic cost is largely unquantified. Since I was elected an Australian Senator there have been many achievements. However, of these the most meaningful for me has been my success in establishing national Senate committee inquiries into institutional care. They completed a trilogy of Australian national inquiries dealing with the tragic consequences of childhoods spent in institutional and other forms of out-of-home care in 20th century Australia. These inquiries revealed that possibly more than 500,000 children were raised in institutional care in Australia last century. Most suffered childhood trauma It is the case that many survivors of childhood trauma go on to produce another generation of victims.

The first of these Australian inquiries occurred in 1997 and was established by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. It covered those indigenous or Aboriginal Australians forcibly removed from their parents as children. The Bringing them Home Report resulted, otherwise known as the stolen generations report. This inquiry spurred on many former child migrants to Australia to protest their right as another stolen generation to also have a national inquiry. I agreed to take up this quest.

After many months of negotiating, I got a Senate inquiry up. The terms of reference covered the child migrant schemes to Australia between World War 2 and the late 1960s. It produced the report, Lost Innocents: Righting the Record, which brought to light what was formerly a hidden chapter of Australian history. Just as the Aboriginal stolen generation inquiry had led to the child migrant inquiry, it soon became clear yet another was required. This inquiry would complete the trilogy and would cover the plight of those nonindigenous, Australian-born children who had also suffered in institutional care. This children in institutional care inquiry produced two reports. The first is Forgotten Australians, which covers institutional care up until the 1970s when deinstitutionalisation began to see large institutions replaced by other forms of out-of-home care. The second report is Protecting Vulnerable Children, which focuses more on the contemporary problems of children and young people in care, including disabled children and those in juvenile justice and detention centres. These reports now stand as vital records of what were mostly hidden and shameful chapters of Australian history. Of equal importance, the inquiries provided survivors with forums to tell their stories. Finally, they knew they would be listened to, and, importantly, believed. One great outcome of these reports is not just how to deal with the past, but providing a scientific guide to future policy.

Childhood trauma continues today. The submissions, the hearings, the reports provide raw data that is invaluable for policy makers wishing to understand the societal impact of childhood trauma across the lifespan. One sure truism was revealed from the inquiries. If you harm and break the spirit of a child, then you will have many decades of a hurt adult to deal with. The reports have placed a number of unanimous recommendations on the political agenda. These aim to right the wrongs of the past and also recommend measures to prevent the future abuse and neglect of children and young people at risk. I urge you all to continue your activism for a national inquiry into institutional child abuse in Canada, one in which the survivors themselves are able to take part. The measure of healing achieved through such a process cannot be underestimated. Such inquiries enable policy makers to get to understand the lifetime of pain and alienation that can come from being raised in out-of-home care; understand the true costs, individual and social as well as economic; understand that badly harmed children can and do become damaged adults who affect themselves and society detrimentally; understand that when multiple generations are affected, the long-term social and economic costs are massive; and understand that it makes sense to reduce the effect of harm on those already harmed. The high direct and indirect costs of harming a child are long term.

In the decades of adult life that follow for an abused child, there is often a psychological response that can and does include anti-social behaviour including violence and crime, substance abuse and significant relationship problems. These costs can be measured in policing, court and prison costs; in the costs of broken homes; in health system costs; in welfare costs; and as opportunity costs. The benefit of preventing or minimising the abuse of children, or, of adequately treating its consequences, is clearly justified by the huge costs of not doing so. I urge you to follow Australia's example. Inquiries like ours will prove of great benefit. (923 words) http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=3M6

Senator Andrew Murray

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Senator for Western Australia

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Biography
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Parliamentary service Parliamentary positions Committee service Conferences, delegations and visits Parliamentary party positions Party positions Personal Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament Publications

Parliamentary service

Elected to the Senate for Western Australia, 1996 (term began 1.7.1996) and 2001. Retired prior to general elections 2007 (term ended 30.6.2008).

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Parliamentary positions

Temporary Chair of Committees from 9.8.05 to 30.6.08.

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Committee service

Senate Standing: Scrutiny of Bills from 1.7.96 to 30.6.08; Appropriations and Staffing from 14.2.08 to 30.6.08. Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing: Economics: Legislation Committee from 1.7.96 to 11.9.06 and References Committee from 1.7.96 to 30.9.99 and from 23.6.05 to 11.9.06; Economics from 11.9.06 to 30.6.08; Finance and Public Administration: Legislation Committee from 1.7.96 to 11.9.06 and References Committee from 1.7.96 to 30.9.99 and from 23.6.05 to 11.9.06; Finance and Public Administration from 11.9.06 to 30.6.08; Legal and Constitutional: Legislation Committee from 3.3.97 to 2.3.98 and References Committee from 27.6.97 to 2.3.98; Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade: References Committee from 23.6.05 to 11.9.06; Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport: References Committee from 23.6.05 to 7.11.05. Senate Select: Socio-Economic Consequences of the National Competition Policy from 8.7.98 to 17.2.00; New Tax System from 26.11.98 to 30.4.99. Joint Statutory: Corporations and Securities from 1.7.96 to 11.2.02; Corporations and Financial Services from 14.2.02 to 30.6.08; Public Accounts and Audit from 1.1.98 to 30.6.08. Joint Standing: Electoral Matters from 6.2.97 to 17.10.07. Joint Select: Retailing Sector from 10.12.98 to 30.8.99.

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Conferences, delegations and visits

Member, Parliamentary Delegation to Switzerland, June 1999. Member, Official Australian Observer Mission to the Zimbabwe Elections, June 2000. Member, Parliamentary Delegation to Ireland and China, July 2000. Member, Senate Legislative and General Purpose Standing Committee on Community Affairs visit to UK and Canada, April 2001. Member, Parliamentary Delegation to France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, April-May 2004. Member, Parliamentary Delegation to Denmark and Sweden, October 2005. Member, Parliamentary Delegation to Malta and Spain, April 2007.

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Parliamentary party positions

Spokesperson for Australian Democrats on Communications (excluding Broadcasting); Industry, Transport and Regional Development; Accountability;

Small Business and Commerce; Tourism from 1.7.96 to 25.2.97; Industrial Relations; Attorney-General and Justice; Accountability; Industry; Transport; Regional Development; Small Business; Tourism from 25.2.97 to 20.10.97; Accountability; Attorney-General and Justice (excluding Human Rights); Electoral Matters; Industrial Relations; Industry; Small Business; Treasury and Finance from 20.10.97 to 12.12.97; Accountability; Finance and Taxation; Industrial Relations; Industry; Customs; Small Business; Electoral Matters from 12.12.97 to 1.1.99; Accountability; Business and Corporate Affairs; Customs; Finance and Administration; Financial Services and Regulation; Industry; Small Business; Workplace Relations from 1.1.99 to 1.7.99; Accountability; Business and Corporate Affairs; Customs; Small Business; Workplace Relations from 1.7.99 to 14.2.01; Accountability; Business and Corporate Affairs; Customs; Finance and Administration; Small Business; Tax Reform; Workplace Relations from 14.2.01 to 14.4.01; Accountability; Business and Corporate Affairs; Customs; Electoral Matters; Finance and Administration; Small Business; Taxation; Workplace Relations from 14.4.01 to 1.7.02; Accountability; Business and Corporate Affairs; Customs; Electoral Matters; Finance and Administration; Small Business; Special Minister of State; Taxation; Workplace Relations from 1.7.02 to 28.7.02 and from 12.8.02 to 24.10.02; Accountability; Customs; Electoral Matters and Public Administration; Public Service; Taxation, Finance and Corporate Affairs; Workplace Relations from 24.10.02 to 1.7.05; Accountability; Electoral Matters; Taxation, Finance and Corporate Affairs; Workplace Relations from 1.7.05 to 30.6.08. Back to top

Party positions

Member, Australian Democrats from 1994. Deputy Convener, Australian Democrats (WA) 1994-96. Campaign Manager, Australian Democrats (WA) 1995-98.

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Personal

Born 29.1.1947, Hove, UK. Migrated to Australia 1989. Married.

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Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

BA(Hons)(Rhodes), MA (Oxon). Rhodes Scholar 1971. Businessman 1973-96.

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Publications

A conspiracy of giants: the South African liquor industry (with M Fridjhon), South Africa: Divaris Stein, 1986. Leases, landlords and tenants, West Perth, WA: A Murray, 1997. 'Using the Popular Vote to Decide National Questions', in Trusting the people: an elected President for an Australian republic, introduced by Andrew Murray, Design by Design Practitioners, Perth, 2001. Review of Operation Sunlight: Overhauling budgetary transparency [Report to the Government], Canberra: A Murray, 2008.