Cynically, I would have to say very little.
Government’s involvement in giving public apologies is a PR exercise to gain votes or point score over its Opposition.
Departments funded to administer, monitor or develop policy and research, quickly gobbled up the funding through department expansion with an increase of public servants, leaving very little left for the victim’s programmes or for their benefit.
Departments frequently judging success by size or how large a budget it attracts; not by the quality of its programmes, research, and administration or monitoring. I know because I came from private enterprise to work in the Public service and solutions were to direct the officer to cease investigation. We need to set priorities. Return to a Public Service that is not politically controlled but there to serve each government. I do not deny that department require adequate staffing levels at the delivery levels.
Courts and government take the line to restrict compensation levels because it might bankrupt the organisations involved.
Then it is argued that e.g. Whether it is brutality or sexual abuse should be compensated at different levels. If sexually abused it might attract 3 or 4 thousand dollars more.
I wish to stress this point, a victim committing suicide from brutality, mental, emotion is just a dead as those driven to it by sexual abuse.
Abuse is abuse, whether sexual, physical, mental or emotional and it scars the victims for life, even driving some commit to suicide.
The Child Protection laws have not changed to provide the protection of children that we need.
Authority needs to listen to the pleas of the children and give more weight to what they say.
Government refuse to develop sound policy because of costs to protect the vulnerable. It would rather fund the military to fight wars overseas than spend on its citizens.
Abuse does not separate race, colour, creed, or sex and we should stop looking at it in that way but look at the issues.
The people preparing these policy and legal decisions have yet to walk the mile of the victims.

" Who will take responsibility for the more than 2 million Australian adults surviving child abuse? "

"The Forgotten Australians sit alongside another group of Australians which has long been forgotten - the more than 2 million adult survivors of childhood abuse or neglect. Their plight and needs have perennially been ignored by the Australian community and successive governments. For this group there has been no apology and no redress, and no funds or provisions have been established."

One tends to get heartly sick of various pressure Groups , who have "apology " as their middle name and either "funds or provisions" as their surname.!

The answer that the writer obviously wants is ....

THE TAXPAYER.

I await the day that a pressure group can come up with something more original than "Apology" or "Gimme Money"..

It can make an otherwise already tragic situation even worse, by creating an indifferent public ,many of whom switch off when the above banal words are uttered.

So whilst those 2,000,000 Australians ( including myself briefly ) have my sympathy, maybe a different approach is required ?

I personally got on with my life and made sure that I would never commit such an act.

Prosecution of the bast/rds that perportrated these abuses then,now and in the future at all levels
I have fought for over 12 years to try to stop that which I suffered being done to my son to no avail
It has been one lie after another in Court after Court all to hurt the father because I just wouldn't lay down and die
The "apology" will probably bring the same tears that were shed for the Indigenous
So this is what I wrote after 12 months of inaction of repair
Yes, a tear was shed
But easy wiped away
Where are those tears that were shed
Are they here today
Those tears are gone
And are of the past
Shed in falsehood they could never last
While a child yearns for his family true
Those tears were shed for nothing new

Thanks all
from Dave

I Have To Agree With You , DWG,

Its About time The Goverment And The States And Territories Stop The Cover Up Of All Those Who Abused Us When We Were Children ,

We Know Mr Rudd Is Giving An Apology To The Forgotten Australians On The 16th November 2009, For The Abuse We Had Suffered In These Institutions And Homes, And Orphanages And Many Many Many Other , Institutions In Australia , ,

But It Would Be Execeptable In This apology That Those Institutions Who Destroyed The Victims Records And Evidence In Proving Their Truth Of What Had Happen To Them When They Were A Child Under Their Care Be Held Accontable For The Crimes That We As Children Had Suffered, By Those Who had Control Of Us.

Though Being The Goverment They Will Still Use Ever Loop Hole To Get Around This Like They Still Do Today , I Know Of Your Hurt As You Know Of Mine , And I Beleave Their Is Just More To An Apology Than Sorry Action Has To Be Taken By The Goverment For Those Who Covered Up About Us Victims ,And Why They Destroyed our Evidence Of Our Truth, Of Which We Are Still Denide Justice

From A real Forgotten Australian

HuffnPuff

Why are there only 2 million survivors of child abuse in Australia? I would have thought there were closer to 20 million.

Exactly who gets to define child abuse? Are only those who are struggling with life liable for compensation and help or should those who have gone on to live full and productive lives also benefit? They are all child abuse victims. How do we define struggling? What is the difference between the normal struggles of life and those endured by child abuse victims? How do we tell whether a person’s struggles are due to child abuse or just poor life choices? Exactly where does government responsibility begin and end? How do we claim compensation from long dead parents who abused us?

There would be a bottomless pit of claimants to financial support but there is not a bottomless pit of taxpayer’s money. Somewhere along the line someone is going to have to call a halt to this demand for money and resources.

Asking for something which cannot be provided is a futile exercise. People who have suffered as children eventually have to accept that no amount of recompense can undo what has been done. That does not mean that those people are doomed to go on suffering. Nobody can move on until they accept things as they are now. If we are waiting for someone else to give us the green light then we are still essentially victims because we do not need those things to move forward and be completely healed. Often the pursuit of apologies and financial support is just an excuse to avoid looking more deeply at life as it is now and accepting that more change is needed within us that is dependent on no one else but ourselves.

Apologies don’t change anyone except the person who apologises. Life should go on regardless. If the government should apologise and they don’t it is their problem and not mine

Huffnpuff
Thanks bloke and I hope that things are going okay with you and family

Phanto
"Exactly who gets to define child abuse? Are only those who are struggling with life liable for compensation and help or should those who have gone on to live full and productive lives also benefit? They are all child abuse victims. How do we define struggling? What is the difference between the normal struggles of life and those endured by child abuse victims? How do we tell whether a person’s struggles are due to child abuse or just poor life choices? Exactly where does government responsibility begin and end? How do we claim compensation from long dead parents who abused us?"

Yes, Many have gone on to productive lives, but when what happened to those stolen and abused went wayward then tried to recognise that which happened as a child caused most of that waywardness and they have tried to repair thier damaged lives and as they are doing it along come the same departments and do the same bl//dy things to thier own innocent child then where do you draw the line? Who then should be held responsible?What should be the compensation and I am not talking just monetary I am talking JUST compensation? Shouldn't someone begin to be prosecuted?
Or does someone that commits an act of theft or "murder"(taking of lifes innocence)from you or anyone else just say sorry and go along with thier life without any recall on that person or people that commit these crimes? If that is the case then those that commit crimes should just say sorry, and no more need for courts lawyers cops etc

Thanks for your time
From Dave