Child abuse victims may not be heard

Echo Netdaily
August 19, 2014

http://www.echo.net.au/2014/08/child-abuse-victims-may-heard/

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Canberra.

Victims may be turned away from the child abuse royal commission from next month, with the government yet to make a decision on an extension.

The commission has requested its 2015 deadline be extended by two years, along with an additional $104 million, but is yet to be told the outcome.

Without the extension, the commission says 3000 victims won’t be heard.

Commission chairman Peter McClellan told a closed community meeting in Victoria the uncertainty meant victims may be turned away from September, News Corp Australia reports.

More than 2200 abuse victims have had private sessions with the commission, with another 1800 scheduled before the end of the year.

‘If the royal commission is not extended, we cannot hold private sessions for any person who contacts us after September or October this year,’ commission chief executive Philip Reed told News Corp.