Briggs, Prof. Freda

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. K.L. Vincent:

That this council—

1. notes the passing on 6 April 2016 of child protection advocate, Emeritus Professor Dr Freda Briggs, AO;

2. recognises the extraordinary body of work Dr Briggs undertook to become an expert in the field of child protection;

3. recognises the role Dr Briggs played into her 86^th year of life working towards the welfare and safety of children; and

4. calls on the South Australian government to establish a research scholarship in Freda Briggs' name at the Australian Centre for Child Protection to honour her name and her dedication to this work.

(Continued from 18 May 2016).

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (21:39): On behalf of the government of South Australia and the Minister for Education and Child Development, the Hon. Susan Close, I wholeheartedly express my support for the motion by the Hon. Kelly Vincent to recognise the extraordinary work of Dr Freda Briggs during her lifetime and to create a scholarship in her name.

The creation of the scholarship at the University of South Australia is an important action because it will not only honour the name of the emeritus professor, but it will also ensure her lifelong contribution to the welfare of children will continue to inspire others to build on her important work. When Emeritus Professor Dr Freda Briggs passed away last year, she left behind a truly incredible legacy of ensuring children and young people around the world are safe and free to learn and grow.

Emeritus Professor Dr Freda Briggs began her work in child protection with the London Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard in the 1950s. As one of the first female police officers in London, Freda was often assisting with the issue of vulnerable children in her day-to-day work. It was more than 50 years ago that Freda began making society a safer place for children. Freda went on to undertake teacher training at Warwick University and as she learned about child development she began to use her knowledge to inform others about the importance of child protection. It was during this time that Freda commenced her life as a researcher and an educator.

Freda emigrated to Australia in 1975 to become the Director of Early Childhood Studies at the State College of Victoria, and in 1980 she moved to Adelaide to become the Dean of the Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies. This is where Freda established her pioneering child protection course, which she then helped to establish in other places, including the United States, Hamburg and Brazil. Freda was instrumental in changing the way Australians thought about child protection. Freda gave a voice to vulnerable children and helped us to understand that child abuse was not only perpetrated by strangers, but could also be perpetrated by the very people that the children relied upon for their wellbeing.

Freda helped create the foundation for our belief in establishing and maintaining child safe environments in all organisations providing services to our children. In addition, Freda consistently advocated for a professional child protection system to address the harm being caused to children in their family homes. Freda was an advocate, an academic, an educator and an author of 20 books. One can only imagine how many child protection workers and teachers have been influenced by Freda's knowledge and passion for child welfare.

There must be a similarly large number of policymakers and members of government who would have been influenced by Freda during her lifetime. I know that the current Minister for Education and Child Development had regular meetings with Freda to discuss childhood development and child protection matters, and that she has also been of benefit to former ministers and advisers in that portfolio area.

The list of Freda's contributions and achievements are extensive. Over the years, Freda has provided assistance to royal commissions and to parliamentary inquiries and has written numerous submission to state and federal inquiries related to child protection. Freda has also received numerous accolades, including the Australian Humanitarian Award, Senior Australian of the Year, Officer of the Order of Australia, the ANZAC fellowship award, the national Centenary Medal, the Jean Denton Memorial Scholarship and the Creswick fellowship award. In 2009, Freda received an honorary doctor of letters degree from the University of Sheffield for outstanding research, publications and contributions to education relating to child abuse and child protection.

It is only fitting then that the proposed scholarship will be established at the University of South Australia, where, in 2005, Freda was appointed as Foundation Chair of Child Development and an emeritus professor. There will be many who have had the privilege of learning from the insight and expertise of Dr Freda Briggs as the pre-eminent voice on child protection in Australia. There will be many of us who will ask, 'What would Freda do?' whenever a system failure is highlighted for us. We must never be worn down or disheartened by the constant battle to make children safe. We need to act like Freda and maintain our motivation and continue to fight, to educate and inform.

I am pleased to announce that the Department for Education and Child Development has been working closely with the University of South Australia and that the inaugural recipient of the scholarship will begin studies in 2018. I believe this is a fitting gesture and will ensure Freda's name continues to be known and her work continues to be done. On behalf of the government, I would like to say thank you to Emeritus Professor Dr Freda Briggs.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (21:44): I rise to echo the support for the motion brought before this place by the Hon. Kelly Vincent and pay tribute to the late Dr Freda Briggs, Emeritus Professor. Freda was known to me. She was a wonderful adviser, an amazing advocate. As the Hon. Justin Hanson just noted, we should all ask ourselves, 'What would Freda do?' because what Freda would do is never ever give up.

I put it on record that I pay tribute to her amazing body of work raising awareness and action around the issue of child abuse, exposing that abuse where it was often denied, championing better ways of ensuring that those who work with children are not just trained in child development but, of course, in child protection. Certainly, I recommit to ensuring some of Freda's goals, such as the registration of social workers and the reform of the Family Law Court in this country.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (21:46): I rise to also commend this motion to the council and to commend the honourable mover for her initiative in raising this matter. Freda Ackeroyd was born in 1930 in Yorkshire and went on to become a pioneer as a child advocate, both in early childhood development and also in child protection. It is almost exhausting having read through her history and her list of achievements, but I think it just goes to show what an extraordinary woman she was that she pursued these issues with so much passion and vigour, and right up until the end she was still working on these issues.

In her formative years as a teenager she experienced her own attempts of abuse. As a 15-year-old clerk, the chief engineer at Imperial Chemical Industries engaged in sexual harassment of her. She complained, and he was moved on. She was also an exchange student in Belgium, where her host father tried to get into her room. She was successful in keeping him out and, feigning illness, returned to the UK, so no doubt that made quite an impression on her at a young age.

In terms of her career in this field, she started her career as a child protection officer with the London police at New Scotland Yard. She then moved into the fields of social work and teaching and undertook extensive further studies in early childhood, teaching psychology and sociology. She moved to Australia in 1975 to take up a position as the director of Early Childhood Studies at the State College of Victoria, which is now Monash. In 1980, she and her family moved to Adelaide, as she was appointed the foundation dean of the de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood Studies, which is now the University of South Australia, which is where she introduced the first multiprofessional tertiary entry course in child protection.

She helped many victims along the way. She was incredibly accessible to a range of individuals, as well as organisations. She advised police in New Zealand, Correctional Services across South Australia, was an expert witness in child abuse trials, gave evidence to many parliamentary inquiries and delivered countless speeches and seminars, including to our own women's council in the Liberal Party.

She advised numerous organisations, including the Scouts, the Christian Brothers, the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church and the Australian Defence Force. She wrote protocols and guidelines for child protection. As the Hon. Justin Hanson has alluded to, she debunked the myth of stranger danger, in that most children are more likely to be groomed and subject to risk from people they know rather than people they do not know.

She wrote some 20 books and advocated for a royal commission prior to one being established. She also received very significant civil and academic awards. In 1998, she was the inaugural recipient of the Australian Humanitarian Award, in 2000 she was the Senior Australian of the Year, in 2005 she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia and, in 2009, she received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Sheffield.

I was pleased to hear the comments of the honourable representative from the government speaking about the support for a research scholarship. I certainly note that the University of South Australia has established memorial funding to support that work. In 2004, the Australian Centre for Child Protection was established in her name and received $10 million from the Howard government. So, she has a huge record of work, and it is only fitting that this chamber should acknowledge that.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (21:50): Can I briefly speak and just begin by thanking those who have spoken in unanimous support for this motion to acknowledge the extraordinary life and work of Professor Freda Briggs and indeed establish a scholarship in her name, which is to be done through the University of South Australia. Those who have spoken in support of this motion have done so with a great deal of passion, and that is exactly what should be done, because Professor Briggs' life was certainly one of great passion and dedication to the enormously important cause of child protection.

Personally, I became aware of Professor Briggs and met her soon after I was elected to this place in 2010 when I was advocating for the parents involved in what has become known as the busman's case, the alleged sexual abuse of seven young children with intellectual disabilities in the southern suburbs of Adelaide. This is, of course, an horrific situation to have to work on and an horrific situation under which to meet someone; nonetheless, I am very thankful that it brought Freda Briggs into my life, because she taught me an enormous amount about child abuse, the behaviours of child abusers, how to spread that awareness in the community so that families, children and the like can be more informed and indeed how the law should respond to those behaviours.

That case was pivotal to the establishment of the Disability Justice Plan and the legislation that we now have in the vulnerable witnesses act, protecting the rights of people with disabilities, including very young children, to have their day in court. This is, of course, important for a number of reasons, not least of which is that people with disabilities are statistically so much more likely to be abused than those without.

This brings me to another area of passion I think it is fair to say Freda and I shared, which was the right of people, particularly those who may be undereducated because of disability and particularly, again, those who are children, to be educated about subjects like sexuality, sex, relationships, bodily autonomy and so on. I think we both recognised that although there is a completely understandable want to protect those children—to protect all children, in fact—and especially those with disabilities, and a want to shy them away from these topics, it is my unfortunate observation that this has in fact the very opposite effect to what is desired in that it actually makes them more vulnerable. If they do not recognise what a healthy interpersonal relationship looks like, they are more unlikely to recognise what an unhealthy one looks like and indeed what abuse looks like.

That is why many of us in this place continue to ask ourselves to this day, 'What would Freda do?' But, indeed, it is not enough to just ask ourselves what would Freda do. We need to ask ourselves, 'What would I do?' and 'What will we do to continue her important work and to continue our fight for children's rights and child protection all over this state?'

That is why I am so pleased that a scholarship has been established to continue that important research so that knowledge spreads not only throughout academic circles but into the community as well, so the community can be better armed with the knowledge they will hopefully pass on to their children and see them better protected. With those few words, thank you again to those who have given passionate support to this motion. Rest in peace, rise in power, Freda Briggs.

Motion carried.