AUSTRALIA
Parramatta Sun
Read the letter here
JULIA Gillard revealed on Monday night why she devoted some of her last minutes as prime minister to writing a letter to Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy.
Ms McCarthy’s work in chronicling sexual abuse of the Catholic Church as part of the Herald’s Shine The Light campaign has been credited with leading to a state inquiry and a federal royal commission.
Ms Gillard said Ms McCarthy’s efforts in uncovering clergy abuse within the Maitland-Newcastle diocese was on her mind before she announced the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
‘‘Everything that was happening in Newcastle was at the forefront of my thinking as we decided to move to the stage of having a national royal commission,’’ Ms Gillard said.
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