Human rights figure denies knowing of sex abuse claims

By Xavier La Canna
ABC - Indigenous
September 24, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-24/dr-tom-calma-denies-knowing-of-sex-abuse-claims/5765846/?site=indigenous&topic=latest

"I have never visited the Retta Dixon home", Dr Tom Calma says, denying he was told of sexual abuse there.

Prominent human rights campaigner Tom Calma has denied he was told of child sexual abuse occurring at the Retta Dixon home in Darwin, in response to a claim made yesterday at an inquiry.

In a statement read out at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Dr Calma - a former ACT Australian of the Year - said:

"I have never visited the Retta Dixon home, either as part of my employment or informally. To the best of my recollection, I do not believe I have ever been directly informed of any allegations of abuse occurring at the Retta Dixon home in the 1960s or 1970s by any victims of the alleged abuse."

Dr Calma was responding to claims made by a witness at the inquiry known only as AKV, who said victims told him of abuse they suffered but that their concerns were not followed up.

AKV said Dr Calma had come to Retta Dixon as a welfare worker from the NT government.

However, Dr Calma told the inquiry he had never worked as a welfare officer with the NT government.

The inquiry entered its third day of hearings on Wednesday, focusing on alleged abuse that occurred at the Retta Dixon home, which housed mainly Aboriginal children between the years 1946 and 1980.

On Tuesday, AKV told the inquiry: "I told him [Dr Calma] about Mr Henderson. I remember telling him about all the cruelties and beatings et cetera, definitely."

Donald Bruce Henderson has been repeatedly named during the royal commission in connection to sexual abuse of children at the home.

"[Dr Calma was] almost like, I am taking notes and this is about as far as it is going to go," AKV said.

Dr Calma, now the chancellor of Canberra University, and a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social justice commissioner and race discrimination commissioner, has pointed out to the inquiry that he is 60, making AKV only six years younger than himself.