AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with audio]

The Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse has had an overwhelming response, prompting the chairman to call for an additional 100 staff members to handle a growing work load. In the first seven months, the commission has recieved more than 6,000 phone calls and nearly 3,500 written inquiries. Justice Peter McClellan says he believes many more private sessions with abuse victims will be held as the commissioners continue to gather evidence.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: The chair of the National Royal Commission into child sexual abuse has appealed for more staff to deal with the enormous challenge of taking evidence from abuse victims.

Justice Peter McClellan told a conference in Melbourne that the commission has been inundated with people wanting to tell their stories.

He says he now realises that if the commission is to properly bear witness to child abuse across…