The Royal Commission 'Ignores Members of the Stolen Generations'

By David Liddle
The Source Nitv News
December 10, 2013

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/12/10/royal-commission-ignores-members-stolen-generation

[with video]

The Royal Commission will hold its final hearing for 2013 over the next two weeks, looking at the Catholic Church's response to allegations of child sexual abuse within its institutions.

One Murri man, who identifies himself as ‘Paul’ from North Queensland, told NITV News about being adopted into a family where the father sexually abused him, inflicting injuries he still suffers today.

He bravely came forward to share his story with the Royal Commission, but says his voice was ignored.

"I told them what had happened, in more detail, and basically they said it's not within their jurisdiction to investigate it. So, if they've got a Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, why isn't it being investigated," said Paul.

Paul says he was also ignored by the authorities in 2006.

"The people from the child protection unit from Townsville came down, a male and a female officer, and before the male turned the tape player on, he said, oh yeah by the way that stuff that you say happened to you never happened to you," said Paul.

The Royal Commission is looking into institutionalised sexual abuse but discounted Paul because he was adopted into a family.

Sam Watson, chairman of Queensland’s community service corporation Link-Up, says Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander complaints are not being taken seriously.

"I know from anecdotal reports across our community that when parents and family members go to the police and try to lodge complaints against these paedophiles, that nothing's being done. That these complaints from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents are not being taken seriously," said Mr Watson.

Mr Watson is fighting for criminal compensation for the Stolen Generations who suffered sexual abuse on church and state run institutions.

But says the fight for justice is a fight against the authorities.

"I really do believe it's been hamstrung because the Royal Commission made a sort of a sweetheart deal with the major church groups," said Mr Watson.

"The Royal Commission would not be recommending any form of criminal prosecution against these people who are going to be exposed. So you’re going to have witnesses coming forward, you’re going to have witnesses identifying paedophiles and perverts who've remained untouched for decades."

As well as Link-up, the Royal Commission has attracted criticism from bodies such as the Congress of Australia's First Peoples, the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, SNAICC, National Stolen Generations Alliance and the First Peoples Disability Network for not placing enough emphasis on Indigenous Australians, particularly members of the Stolen Generations.