Victims Anxious about Findings of Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

ABC News
November 12, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/abuse-victims-anxious-about-findings-of-victorian-abuse-inquiry/5087856

Abuse victims say they hope there will be a strong response to the findings of the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into child abuse.

The committee has spent the past year analysing the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations and will hand down its final report today.

It will make recommendations to the State Government, which has six months to respond.

There is a long history of the sexual abuse of children in Ballarat's schools, churches and orphanages, dating back to the 1950s.

Many people gave evidence to the inquiry when public hearings were held in the city last December.

Survivors are hoping the inquiry will recommend tougher rules for reporting abuse and more powers for investigating historical cases.

Andrea Lockhart is a senior counsellor at the Ballarat Centre Against Sexual Assault and she says survivors are anxious about the findings.

"There's a lot of anticipation and anxiety (and) the expectation that nothing will change," she said.

"There's the fear and the hope mixed, I guess."

Ms Lockhart says police should be better resourced to handle historical investigations into sexual abuse in the area.

Abuse victim Manny Waks hopes the report will shed more light on the extent of child abuse in Victoria.

"One of three to four girls and one of five to six boys experience child sexual abuse before the age of 18," he said.

"Once people actually understand how prevalent it is in our society, they'll understand the response needs to be a serious one.

"There are many other alleged victims who are still out there suffering.

"From our perspective as long as the report reflects in a serious way, what has actually been going over the past few decades that will be a pleasing result in many ways," he said.

Anthony Foster's daughters were abused by a member of the clergy.

He is calling for an independent complaints system that protects the rights of the victims.

"Certainly in Victoria we now feel today is the day our State Parliament has the chance to decide that the laws of our state override the laws of the Catholic Church. And hopefully they'll come down on the side of victims.

"We have to see legislative changes that give rights to victims that they have been denied for so long under the church's archaic laws."

A rally will be held on the steps of State Parliament after the release of the report.

Clare Leaney, of the victims' advocacy group, In Good Faith and Associates, says she would like to see organisations open a fund to pay for counselling and compensation for victims.

She also wants the ombudsman to review previous compensation cases.

"We're getting a lot of complaints that previous settlements have been paltry and unfair in many eyes and this process has been described as combative, not helpful," she said.

The inquiry heard from a large number of individuals and organisations including the Catholic Church and the Salvation Army.

In testimony to the inquiry, the church revealed that it had paid out $30 million in compensation to over 800 victims of sexual abuse.

The Archbishop of Melbourne, Denis Hart, admitted the church had been too slow to act when dealing with paedophile priests and apologised for the church's failure to recognise and deal with the abuse.

He described it as one of the darkest periods in the church's history.