After the Pain Is the Punishment

The Telegraph
April 4, 2013

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/after-the-pain-is-the-punishment/story-e6frezz0-1226611978422



DECADES of pain and torment are set to be revealed with the first steps in the government's royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse.

Thousands of childhood abuse victims are preparing for the hopefully liberating process of explaining the crimes they endured.

As stressful as this will be, the challenge of giving evidence does not compare to the ordeals many have already suffered. These Australians remain physically and emotionally scarred by the cruelty inflicted upon them and their numbers are such that the royal commission will continue for years.

The commission's first task is to listen, but listening will not be enough. Beyond the gathering of evidence and the agonies of revelation, action is required.

This will be the true test of the royal commission. While even the hearing of victims is to be applauded, this will be undercut unless it is supported by a meaningful legal response.

The royal commission offers hope to Australians who struggle daily to trust those around them. That hope would be dashed if the outcome of the commission is anything less than muscular.

Indeed, the six commissioners and their staff will require great strength even to hear many witness accounts. Commission chair Justice Peter McClellan is well aware of the difficulties ahead. "The advice we have received from psychiatrists is that however robust the listener, persons exposed continuously to the account of these traumatic events are themselves at risk of harm," he said yesterday.

We wish Justice McClellan and his co-commissioners all the courage they require.

And we pray that justice will be delivered to thousands of Australians whose innocence was so callously stolen.

Gaffe-prone Garrett

PETER Garrett's political career hasn't exactly reached the same levels of success he enjoyed in his previous role as lead singer and sort-of dancer for Midnight Oil.

The beanpole Member for Kingsford-Smith was demoted as Environment Minister by then-PM Kevin Rudd in 2010 over his involvement in the bungled insulation installation plan.

And now Garrett has admitted another bungle, in his latest job as Education Minister.

According to Garrett earlier this year, some 30 per cent of Australian students can't read or write properly upon reaching high school. In fact, as Garrett's staff now concede, that claim arises from way back in 1997 and applied to children reaching years 3 and 5.

A Garrett staffer, exhibiting footwork skills that would be the envy of her boss, tried to sidestep the matter by telling The Daily Telegraph: "We were not informed it was outdated." Must be a case of short memories.