AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
January 12, 2013
Christine Sams
A day after announcing details about the most extensive royal commission in Australian history, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has thanked advocates against child sexual abuse for years of tireless campaigning.
The Prime Minister hosted a morning tea at Kirribilli House on Saturday and comforted some overwhelmed guests who had themselves been affected by abuse.
She said she wanted to show victims the community silence surrounding child sexual abuse is over.
“I know there a lot of people here, as individuals and as representatives of their groups who probably thought they would never see this day,” Prime Minister Gillard said. “I’m really aware that I’m looking out at a group of people who over years, indeed decades, have fought for justice for people who were abused as children. I know that people here have raised their voices time after time after time to say that our nation has to face up to the consequences of what happened, we have to shine a light on it. It’s going to be painful, it’s going to be hard but we’ve got to do that so that we can learn for the future.”
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