Abuse Victims May Get Payout

By Bianca Hall
The Age
January 12, 2013

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/abuse-victims-may-get-payout-20130111-2clj4.html

THOUSANDS of child sexual abuse victims across Australia have been offered the prospect of financial compensation for their treatment at the hands of institutions and organisations.

The royal commission into child sex abuse will be asked to report on what institutions and governments should do to address or to soften the impact of past and future abuse. This could include forcing institutions to offer redress, helping crimes be referred for prosecution and offering support services.

Announcing the terms of reference, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia must never again avert its eyes from the spectre of child sexual abuse.

''Any child being subject to child sexual abuse is an evil and horrible event,'' Ms Gillard said.

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''What I think is so confronting about much of what is in the public domain now is the sense that there were systemic issues, and that there were eyes averted and children left in harm's way when changes could have been made and issues of abuse addressed. We've got to learn from that, so we do better in the future.''

Ms Gillard said the commission would focus solely on the past sexual abuse of children within organisations and institutions, including police, schools, sporting clubs, orphanages, foster care and religious organisations.

''It will not deal with child sexual abuse in the family, [and] it will also not deal with abuse of children which is not associated with child sexual abuse.''

The commission will report on ways children in institutions can be better protected and identify impediments that prevent children reporting abuse.

Former Australian Law Reform Commission president David Weisbrot said the bill for the abuse inquiry would likely exceed the $100 million spent on the Victorian royal commission into the 2009 bushfires.

The abuse inquiry will be led by Justice Peter McClellan, the Chief Judge at Common Law of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The five other commissioners are former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson; Justice Jennifer Coate; the Productivity Commission's Robert Fitzgerald; Professor Helen Milroy, who has extensive experience in child and adolescent health; and former Western Australia Democrat senator Andrew Murray.

The six commissioners will speak by telephone on Monday and meet for the first time on Wednesday, Ms Gillard said.

The commissioners will be appointed for three years and will provide an interim report within 18 months. The terms of reference put an end date on the royal commission of December 31, 2015, but Ms Gillard said that could be extended.

The government will introduce legislation next month to allow the commissioners to hear cases individually, rather than in concert.

Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the commission would have ''far-reaching powers'' that could allow it to override confidentiality agreements made in past settlements with victims, or to issue immunity from prosecution.

But she said the public needed to moderate its expectations of those powers.

''This royal commission is not a police force; it is not a prosecuting body,'' she said. She said that if anyone had an allegation about child sexual abuse, they should take it to the police.

While royal commissions do not have the power to prosecute individuals, the government will ensure allegations of sexual abuse raised by the commission can be investigated and, if proven, prosecuted.

The terms of reference will require commissioners to establish a process for the referral of cases to the police. Commissioners are also empowered to set up a special ''investigative unit'', which will work with police.

Georgie Crozier, the chairwoman of Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into child abuse - due to issue its report to Parliament in April - said the committee would continue its work.

''The scale and scope of the royal commission is vast and will take some time to establish and get under way,'' she said.

It is likely that the Victorian inquiry will continue until the commission officially commences.