SPEECH

THE HON LEN ROBERTS-SMITH RFD, QC

CHAIR, DEFENCE ABUSE RESPONSE TASKFORCE

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE TASKFORCE

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

26 NOVEMBER 2012

Thank you, Minister. The Minister mentioned a moment ago some observations made in the DLA Piper Review to the effect that there had been quite a number of reports and reviews in relation to these areas within Defence over a number of years, and that measures had been put into place.

Their observation there I think was that in most cases, the recommendations which had been made, had been accepted and indeed implemented, but self-evidently they had not necessarily resulted in dealing with the problems which had been identified.

More significantly from the point of view of the present Taskforce is this point, that those previous reports and reviews have been focused on dealing with the systemic issues, and looking to dealing with the problems for the future.

One of the observations made in the DLA Piper Review was that in many instances, the actual allegations of sexual or other abuse which had been the cause of the review or report in the first instance, had not been themselves addressed.

That I think is a very significant difference, so far as this Taskforce is concerned, because one of the primary aspects - one of the main focuses of this Taskforce - is going to be dealing with each of the allegations and complaints that have been made and identified by DLA Piper, and indeed any others which come in, in the immediate future, over the period with which the Taskforce is going to be concerned.

It will be the role of the Taskforce, therefore, to deal with individual cases, and to ensure that they are referred appropriately, obviously the Taskforce cannot itself take action, full investigative action or prosecutorial action, or whatever the case may be in relation to every one of them, but what the Taskforce can and will do, is ensure that they are properly further investigated to the point of the Taskforce being able to ensure what action, or to identify what appropriate action is necessary, and then to refer or arrange for that action to be taken, and monitor the implementation of it.

Likewise compensation, the Minister has mentioned compensation - the scheme is being established by the Government. The Taskforce will administer that Scheme.

Again, I think the important point to recognise about that is that it is not going to be a civil liability-type scheme where people have to establish damages and liability and go to great lengths of proof to establish a claim. There will be a relatively low threshold for entitlement under the compensation scheme, and the key principle underlying it will be simply to recognise that compensation should be payable in recognition of the simple fact that sexual or other abuse of the kind we’ve been talking about, is itself a wrong, and compensable.

So that I think are some of the things which are significantly different about this Taskforce, and I reiterate that our focus will be in relation to the individual cases, to ensure that they are appropriately dealt with.

Overarching that of course, the DLA Piper review also drew attention to system issues within Defence, and there were quite a lot of historical issues of that kind. The Taskforce needs to build on that work, to develop the examination of systemic and cultural issues within Defence, in conjunction with the work that Liz and her team have done, and in addition and in conjunction with the Pathway to Change approach, which is currently being implemented within Defence.

So the Taskforce will be looking at individual cases, looking at outcomes for the individual cases, and also in relation to that, looking at the way in which Defence managed those cases, or alternatively failed to do so, and if there was a failure, then why was it so, and what can be done to fix that now?

The only other observation I think I should make at this stage before questions, after Liz (Broderick, Sex Discrimination Commissioner) has spoken to you, is this. There are very significant privacy issues here, some may say well why not have a Royal Commission with public hearings- I would have thought one obvious answer to that is the very serious privacy issues.

DLA Piper made it quite clear in their report that very many of the people who raised allegations with them, had never done so before, they had never done so within the ADF, and in many instances they had never even mentioned to their families what they say happened to them. They are concerned not to be publicly identified in the context of the sort of work the Taskforce is going to be doing.

That obviously needs to be respected, we will need to be able to resolve or assist the resolution of their allegations and complaints in an appropriate way, whilst respecting their privacy, and the privacy of their families.

The other side of that too of course, from a proper legal point of view, is that of procedural fairness. The DLA Piper Review did not purport to identify alleged perpetrators, the work of the taskforce is likely to do so, and indeed, I think that is going to be part of what we seek to do.

That does not mean we would investigate things to the extent of preparing prosecution briefs for instance, we will still be conducting only preliminary investigations, sufficient to determine whether or not there is substance, or likely to be substance in an evidentiary sense, to the allegations which have been made, and if we conclude that there is, then they will be referred off, as the Minister says, to the appropriate police or investigating authority for further proper, that is, full investigation, and if appropriate, prosecution, by the appropriate authorities.

So in relation to alleged perpetrators, the critical point I think to bear in mind is the need to maintain procedural fairness, we are going to have to be sensitive to that, and deal with people in that context again in an appropriate and fair way.

Subject to those constraints, the work of the Taskforce is going to be considerable, there is a huge amount of work to be done, and I’m very pleased with the other people who are so far on the Taskforce with me, in the leadership group, and each of them brings to bear skills which are going to be highly relevant, and very useful indeed, to the range of work which the Taskforce is going to have to have undertaken.

Thank you.

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