AUSTRALIA
The Standard
18 Apr, 2012
The Victorian government has come under fire for ordering a parliamentary inquiry to investigate child sex abuse by the clergy, rather than a royal commission.
Convicted former priests Gerald Ridsdale, Bryan Coffey and Paul Ryan and former CBC brother Robert Best all served in the south-west. Victims from the region are among those who committed suicide because of Catholic clergy sexual abuse.
There are concerns a royal commission would have had a better chance of getting to the bottom of the issue than a six-member committee of inexperienced politicians working part-time.
The inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu yesterday following revelations that at least 40 victims of the Catholic clergy had committed suicide, is to be conducted by State Parliament’s existing Family and Community Development Committee. “We regard child abuse as abhorrent and we will endeavour to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening and indeed bring those who are perpetrators of child abuse to justice,” Mr Baillieu told reporters.
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