Retiring Whitlam MP Stephen Jones farewell speech to federal parliament

Illawarra Mercury

CW: Retiring Whitlam MP and former Edmund Rice student Stephen Jones revealed he was a "survivor" of child sex abuse in his farewell speech to federal parliament.

Transcript

00:00I'd like to spend a moment, if I could, just to reflect upon what I think have been great

00:05achievements of all the governments that I've been in this parliament and experienced over

00:13those last 15 years.

00:14I want to start with a reflection on what I thought was a really brilliant contribution

00:21by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, which I don't think has had enough recognition.

00:29Former Prime Minister Gillard established a royal commission into child sex abuse.

00:36Over four years it heard stories from thousands of Australians of abuse at the hands of churches

00:47and other institutions.

00:48There were over 1,000 individual contributions, 8,000 private sessions, 26,000 letters and

00:56emails leading to over 2,500 referrals to police.

01:04What was so important about this was that for decades the victims had been denied.

01:11Their stories, if ever told, were contested and they were told they were not true.

01:18I can say, because I was a part of some of those early discussions, that establishing

01:22this royal commission wasn't inevitable.

01:25It was contested, including in this chamber.

01:29It wasn't inevitable.

01:30It took courage and I thank the former Prime Minister for it.

01:37When we established that royal commission we sent a message.

01:41The message was that we see you, we hear you and we believe you.

01:46We often speak in this place of strength and weakness and we reduce those concepts

01:55of strength to mean power over others.

02:00I think there's another kind of strength.

02:03It's the strength that comes from the things that you overcome and the strength that knows

02:10it's more important to do things with and for people than to them.

02:17The royal commission was a really painful experience for survivors but a necessary piece

02:24of truth-telling and reconciliation.

02:29Survivors including me appreciate it, a point I've never disclosed because I didn't want

02:35to be defined by it and because I didn't want to detract attention from those who,

02:43unlike me, didn't have a voice, didn't have access to power to tell their story.

02:52There is power in being seen, being heard and being believed.

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