AUSTRALIA
The Age
Barney Zwartz
Religion editor, The Age.
On November 9 last year, Georgie Crozier strode to the lectern, fixed me with a steely gaze and read a short statement defending the Victorian inquiry into how the churches handled child sexual abuse.
Although the chairwoman of the six-MP committee running the inquiry did not explicitly mention it, she was clearly stung by my opinion piece in The Age two days earlier criticising the pace and depth the inquiry had shown to that point – just 1½ days of hearings – and the opaqueness of the process. She answered many questions in the article, and concluded: ”We have begun the process, let us get on with it.”
This article is an odd sort of mea culpa, because I am not convinced I was entirely wrong at the time. The committee did start slowly, and there were legitimate doubts about its political will. But I certainly wouldn’t write such an article now.
I think the members gained self-belief and momentum as they went along, were appalled by what victims told them, and got emotionally involved. It is impossible not to, the stories are so harrowing. Those involved in the inquiry needed regular counselling.
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