Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has revealed he was sexually abused by a teacher when he was a 16-year-old boy.
Mr Gutwein dropped the bombshell during a press conference on Friday.
The Premier is under pressure after members of his government groaned in response to a question about a child abuse survivor during Question Time this week.
Mr Gutwein has since offered the woman a personal and public apology.
After copping a barrage of follow-up questions, he opened up about an experience from his own childhood.
Mr Gutwein revealed he had been a victim of child sex abuse and had “great empathy” for victim survivors “because I walked in their shoes”.
“I’m going to do this once and I’m not going to speak about it again,” the Premier said.
“When I was 16 I was a victim of child sexual assault.
“It was my former teacher when I left high school and it was over the Christmas holidays.
“I was asked to go their home to have a beer which I thought was a fantastic. I’d known this person for a long period of time.
“While I was there, they placed their arm around me and they grabbed for my groin and tried to get their hand down my pants.
“I was big enough and strong enough to get them off me and get away.”
Mr Gutwein was asked if Liberal MPs would be reprimanded for their actions or forced to apologise.
“In terms of the groans in parliament, if I truly believed that there was any intent to maliciously damage or hurt the person involved, then I would have dragged them into the parliament myself yesterday and forced them to respond,” he said. “I provided an apology without excuse or explanation.
“To have a victim survivor that felt this government wasn't being supportive was something that deeply troubled me. It’s one of the first night’s I’ve lost sleep in a long time.”
The premier said he reached out to the woman via email this morning and hoped they would speak over the phone. “I know what the loss of trust feels like. I know what the shame feels like.”
Back in 2020, Mr Gutwein announced a Commission of Inquiry into child sex abuse in public institutions.
Around that time it was revealed there were historical allegations of abuse involving state government employees.
The inquiry replaced three other already-announced investigations into allegations of abuse in the health department, the education department, and in the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
Mr Gutwein said, until now, his motivations behind that commission were not laid bare, admitting on Friday they were “very personal”.
“I want to get to the bottom of this through this Commission of Inquiry so that once and for all we have a framework moving forward, so parents like me today can be certain their children are in the safest possible place when they are in the state’s care.”
