AUSTRALIA
The Age
The Victorian joint parliamentary committee’s report into child sex abuse marks a watershed moment for our community. With an unwavering eye on the rights and needs of victims, the committee has peeled away layers of secrecy imposed by perpetrators of sexual abuse and by the non-government organisations which, for decades, did nothing about it. The committee members should be congratulated. Their report is deeply respectful, insightful and measured while traversing awful and confronting evidence of abuse.
This report should change us and the way our community lives. If, as we urge, the government adopts the proposed reforms, protective measures would be strengthened and victims’ avenues for redress improved. For example, anyone who conceals abuse or fails to report it would be criminally liable; an officer of an organisation who puts a child at risk or fails to take reasonable steps to protect a child, knowing there is risk, may be held criminally liable for endangering the child’s welfare. There is also a proposal to review the Wrongs Act to make organisations directly liable for criminal acts of abuse by employees.
These are important proposals because they go beyond staff selection procedures (such as compulsory checks on employees who will work with children) and impose an enduring duty on organisations to stay alert to the potential for abuse.
The inquiry has offered a glimpse into the unfathomable hurt wrought on several thousands of people in this state whose lives were damaged by sexual abuse. It has also highlighted the utter disregard some organisations demonstrated for those same victims’ rights, in particular the shameful conduct of the Catholic Church. That organisations as rich and powerful as the church ignored victims’ complaints, deliberately obfuscated or denied the wrongdoing of criminals in their ranks, almost defies belief today. That the church spends millions of dollars trying to beat down victims’ damages claims is simply reprehensible.
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