Abuse survivors say state has abandoned them

Child abuse survivors claim they have been abandoned by the Palaszczuk government.

Child abuse victims say the Queensland government has ignored their recommendations.

Child abuse survivors claim they have been abandoned by the ­Palaszczuk government, which has ­refused to update its definition of child abuse to include serious physical mistreatment in the same category as sexual molestation.

Queensland has taken a different approach to other Australian states and territories which, following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, legislated to ­include physical abuse in their definitions.

The statute of limitations in Queensland will be removed for victims of child sexual abuse looking to sue an institution but not those who were seriously physically mistreated.

Child abuse victims say the Labor government has ignored their recommendations in the wake of the commission’s report in 2017.

In parliament this week, ­Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the government would not include a change in the definition in the Civil Liability and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, which won’t be debated again until August.

Allan Allaway, who was physically abused as a child, said he felt betrayed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who, in parliament in 2016, described him as a “friend for many years and whose personal stories have touched my life”.

Mr Allaway said: “I’m not going to cop this … we are continuing to be abused by the system and the government.”