Victorian Abuse Report to Feed into Royal Commission

By Emily Bourke
The ABC News
November 13, 2013

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-13/victorian-abuse-report-to-feed-into-royal/5089176?section=vic

[with audio]

The Victorian inquiry into how institutions and organisations responded to child abuse is the latest in dozens of state-based investigations concerned with the sexual abuse of children, either in institutional care, foster care, child migration, or child protection systems. The Royal Commission is expected to gather all of the previous Australian reports, identify the good and bad amongst the recommendations they made, and evaluate their effectiveness.

ELEANOR HALL: While work of the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry has now wound up, the national Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse continues its work.

The World Today's Emily Bourke has been reporting on the Royal Commission and she joins us now.

Emily, how will the Royal Commission - a national inquiry - handle this state-based report?

EMILY BOURKE: Eleanor, it's expected that this will feed into the Royal Commission.

This report out of Victoria is just the latest in many state-based inquiries concerned with sexual abuse of children.

In fact The Head of the Royal Commission, Justice Peter McClellan, said this week that over the past 30 years there have been at least 80 state or territory based inquiries that have looked at issues directly relevant to the Commission's work.

ELEANOR HALL: Eighty?

EMILY BOURKE: Eighty. That's right. 80. Now, all of these previous Australian reports will be gathered up and the Royal Commission will try to identify the good and the bad amongst the recommendations and how effective they've been.

Now in keeping with the law reform proposals that have come out of the Victorian Inquiry, the Royal Commission's terms of reference also cover this topic of justice for victims. And in particular the Commission is expected to look at the civil and criminal processes and the how the statute of limitations affects a person's right to sue.

ELEANOR HALL: Well as we just heard, the Victorian report was absolutely scathing about the Catholic Church and its current leaders. When will the National Royal Commission put its focus on the Catholic Church?

EMILY BOURKE: Well the Royal Commission's public hearings have so far focused on the Scouts, on the Hunter Aboriginal Children's Service, and the YMCA.

Next week it will look at the Anglican Church and the North Coast Children's Home in Lismore.

But it would be fair to say that the Royal Commission's inquiries into the Catholic Church are continuous and ongoing.

And no doubt the 70-odd private sessions that are being held around the country each week include stories of how the Catholic Church in its various settings have responded to victims.

And as far as a public examination goes, in the second week of December of this year, the Royal Commission will examine the Catholic Church's Towards Healing protocols which came in in 1996 and they set out the complaints handling procedures for the church. And it's been the subject of several revisions over the years, but it remains deeply controversial.

The Commission also has developed an Issues Paper on Towards Healing, and that's attracted around 50 submissions so far.

And just as a footnote, Justice McClellan said this week that the Royal Commission's public inquiry of Towards Healing will likely continue throughout the life of the inquiry.

ELEANOR HALL: Emily Bourke, our reporter covering the National Royal Commission, thank you.