AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
27 May 2017
IT took the NSW Upper House seven months to debate Newcastle Animal Justice Party Upper House MP Mark Pearson’s motion to condemn the Catholic Church for its history of child sexual abuse in Australia.
He first raised it in October, 2016, in a powerful speech in Parliament after a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse public hearing in Newcastle about abuse in the Hunter Catholic Church over decades.
He was supported by barrister and NSW Greens Justice spokesman David Shoebridge, who has been a champion for survivors of child sexual abuse in Australia for many years.
It was not until Thursday that the major parties responded, and survivors and survivor groups experienced a chill about the future – after the royal commission has delivered its final report in December and politicians are responsible for how governments address its recommendations.
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