AUSTRALIA
Daily Advertiser

Editorial

THIS week’s announcement of a royal commission into child sex abuse is both welcome and long overdue.

Such abuse is one of the most abhorrent crimes our society must deal with, the implications of its prevalence changing lives forever – in some cases, bringing them to a premature end.

There must be no debate about the cost or the time this commission takes – this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to tackle one of the most confronting issues facing our society.

Tuesday’s press conference by Cardinal George Pell shed some light on the church’s likely approach, saying he expected all within to co-operate fully with the inquiry. Not that the church would have much option.