Yesterday evening Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that she will recommend a nation-wide Royal Commission into child sexual abuse, a vital step toward targeting the institutions that have been complicit in covering up or turning a blind eye to incidents of child sexual abuse in the past.
The scope of the inquiry is wide-reaching, with Gillard announcing at a press conference: “I want to get this right. So, over the next few weeks, we will be consulting with the organisations that represent the survivors of child abuse, with religious organisations, with state and territory governments, to ensure the terms of reference are right.”
“Child sexual abuse is a vile thing, it’s an evil thing, it’s done by evil people,” Ms Gillard said. “But what we’ve seen, too, in recent revelations, it is not just the evil of the people who do it – there has been a systemic failure to respond to it and to better protect children. And I particularly want to get the insights about what would stop that type of systemic failure happening again.”
The decision to implement a Royal Commission was sparked by new allegations about ongoing abuse and its concealment by the NSW Catholic Church.
Change.org petitioner Pete Dillon, a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church in Victoria, described Gillard’s backing of the Royal Commission as “an historic decision”.
Dillon said, “It represents the vindication of decades of tireless, courageous work by people across the country to make sure that justice is done for victims and survivors of abuse. There’s still a long way to go, especially given the terms of reference are still being decided — but this is truly great news for me, other survivors of sexual abuse, their families and loved ones.”
Watch Gillard’s media address in full below via ABC News.
