The Moment of Truth Finally Arrives

By Lenore Taylor
Brisbane Times
November 12, 2012

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/politics/the-moment-of-truth-finally-arrives-20121112-298gx.html

Peter Fox ... NSW inquiry launched after latest accusations by the Hunter police officer. Photo: Peter Stoop

AFTER so much pain, so many shocking revelations, so many years of thankless campaigning by the betrayed and so much resistance by the accused, the fight to expose the full horrible truth about institutional child sexual abuse in Australia finally reached a tipping point yesterday.

Now the nation will experience the most wide-ranging and potentially explosive royal commission in recent history. It will run wherever the evidence directs it, no matter how long it takes and whatever the consequences.

Many of the most recent royal commissions have been into specific allegations or scandals - Labor's controversial lease of Centenary House, the building and construction industry, the collapse of HIH insurance. Some have revealed deep wounds and difficult truths, like the four-year Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

But none has ranged this widely - looking at the treatment of children in care across all religions, schools, not-for-profit organisations, community organisations, child welfare agencies and state bodies.

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Two states had already begun inquiries, NSW most recently after the accusations of Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, and Victoria earlier this year. Federally, the independents, the Greens and many Labor backbenchers saw the time for a national royal commission had come. When Tony Abbott announced yesterday afternoon that the Coalition would support a government-backed royal commission provided it did not focus exclusively on the Catholic Church the push finally became unstoppable.

But Julia Gillard has quite rightly proceeded with caution.

Before her announcement she spoke to the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, who was resisting the idea of a royal commission to the end. She made it clear the inquiry was much broader than the Catholic Church and that proper consultations would happen before she set terms of reference or appointed commissioners.

It is an investigation that could take many years and confront the nation with truths that are deeply disturbing.

But, as many of the victims have said, it is only when the truth is understood and acknowledged that the process of healing and reconciliation can begin.