AUSTRALIA
The Australian

PETER CRAVEN
From:The Australian
November 17, 2012

IT’S fortunate that when Julia Gillard announced on Monday that she would hold a royal commission into child abuse, she emphasised it would not confine itself to any one religious institution, or to religious institutions at all: government childcare, non-profit private bodies such as the Scouts – all would be scrutinised.

If the process was going to take years, then fair enough, in the Prime Minister’s view – there could (and should) be no shortcuts in this business.

It was an appropriate way to announce a royal commission, because the immediate provocation for one was that there had been more reports of abuse involving the Catholic Church.

They were hellish reports: of Catholic brothers committing pack rapes of children in orphanages, of offending priests being posted to new parishes where they offended again.

Premier Ted Baillieu in…