CHURCH Group Welcomes Royal Commission

9 News
January 11, 2013

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/01/11/17/02/church-group-welcomes-royal-commission

The "broad expertise" of the six members of a royal commission into child sexual abuse will ensure a balanced approach to the investigation, a leading church welfare group says.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Friday that NSW Supreme Court judge Peter McClellan would head the commission as it examines institutional responses to child sex abuse.

UnitingCare Australia National Director Lin Hatfield Dodds has welcomed the appointment of multiple commissioners, saying her group had urged such an approach.

"In our submission, we argued for the appointment of more than just one commissioner, saying a broad range of expertise was needed to deal with the volume of work that this issue will generate," Ms Hatfield Dodds said.

"We said the scope of the commissioners' experience should include legal and judicial expertise, an understanding of the legal structures of the institutions that will be the subject of the inquiry, including church legal structures, and of the governance of social services and independent schools."

Justice McClellan will be assisted by former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson, former Victorian president of the Children's Court Justice Jennifer Coate, Productivity Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald, consultant psychiatrist Professor Helen Milroy and former West Australian senator Andrew Murray.

Ms Hatfield Dodds said UnitingCare Australia would commit its full support to the inquiry, which is expected to wind up in December 2015.

"We stand ready to work with the commission on this important work."