AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street
Frank Brennan | 02 July 2014
On Monday, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses of Child Sexual Abuse produced its first interim report to government. The commission has asked the Abbott Government for a two-year extension until December 2017 and an additional $104 million to complete its task.
When Julia Gillard announced the federal royal commission in November 2012, I expressed some reservations about such a wide ranging inquiry, claiming that it would take at least five years, and I did not know that victims or the rest of us could wait that long to learn critical lessons about how institutions might improve their procedures for the protection of children.
Justice McClellan is adamant that the job will take five years if it is to be done properly. The good news is that the victims’ groups seem to think they can wait that long, as anything sooner would be rushed. The bad news is that we will all be waiting another three and a half years for answers about how to restructure institutions ensuring the better protection of children and about how best to provide compensation and ongoing care for victims.
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