Finally, the Child Victims Can Speak at the Royal Commission

By Peter Fox
Herald Sun
April 4, 2013

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/finally-the-child-victims-can-speak-at-the-royal-commission/story-e6frfhqf-1226611946951

OVER decades I have investigated and witnessed the terrible lifelong effect of child sexual abuse on victims and their families.

After seeing systems fail those victims, I finally joined the call for a federal royal commission by writing to the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell last November. Now we have a chance to get this right.

The Australian Royal Commission examining Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has an enormous assignment before it: listening to hundreds, if not thousands, of witnesses, and investigating and examining evidence, before making nation-changing recommendations.

It's not going to be easy, and no one is imagining that it will be. Public expectations are high, as they should be. Just because this is going to be difficult and painful doesn't mean we shouldn't go there. Australians are noted for tackling difficult situations.

Similar commissions and inquiries have been conducted overseas, exposing child sexual abuse of horrific proportions. The scale of these crimes shocked the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Austria and elsewhere in Europe.