Children's Advocates Push for National Protection Agency

By Pia Akerman
The Australian
October 31, 2013

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/childrens-advocates-push-for-national-protection-agency/story-e6frg6nf-1226750023905

More protection wanted . . . the first day of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Melbourne

RELIGIOUS orders and child safety advocates have called for the federal government to establish a national agency to oversee child protection standards, describing existing state-based measures as an "untenable" approach that increases the risk of sexual abuse.

A broad range of groups have demanded the new regulatory body in submissions to the royal commission investigating institutional responses to child sexual abuse, released yesterday as the commission continued public hearings in Sydney.

The Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council says organisations dealing with children need a "substantial overhaul" of their policies and practices, and the absence of a mandatory national accreditations scheme backed by an external audit system is "a major limitation that increases risk".

"There is a strong moral and ethical imperative to commit to ending the sexual abuse of children within organisations," the council submission says. "A major shift is required to ensure that organisations become child-safe organisations."

The council acknowledged such reforms would increase costs and administrative workloads for organisations which dealt with children, including those which operated on a small scale and were staffed by volunteers.

The Australian Human Rights Commission agreed a national accreditation system was the most effective way to ensure organisations were safe for children, while child protection charity Child Wise called for a new national child abuse prevention strategy and body to oversee organisations dealing with children, describing the existing state-based approach to child protection as "untenable".

"Innumerable inquiries and reports within and outside of Australia have recommended sweeping changes to the way we ensure the protection of children within organisations, to little avail," the charity's child protection policy officer, Scott Jacobs, said.

"Governments have been tinkering at the edges of something that requires radical restructuring."

The Children's Protection Society said a national registration body similar to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency should be established with monitoring powers over organisations and the ability to ban suspected child abusers from working in child-related jobs, even if there is not enough evidence for criminal prosecution.

The royal commission is questioning staff from Sydney's YMCA about failings in their protection safeguards which allowed childcare worker Jonathan Lord to abuse children.

In its submission, the YMCA also urged creation of an external and independent accreditation and review process for organisations working with children, but did not address Lord's case.