Child sex abuse inquiry: Protest held outside Attorney-General John Rau's office after 'Johnnie-come-latelies' royal commission comment

By Candice Marcus
ABC News
October 12, 2015

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Protesters outside Attorney-General John Rau's Kilburn office.

Supporters of victims of child sexual abuse have congregated outside the Attorney-General's electorate office at Kilburn to highlight what they say are insensitive and offensive comments about the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

When responding to the commission's recommendation for a national redress scheme last month, Attorney-General John Rau said the commission was a bunch of "Johnnie-come-latelies".

"We have already dealt with a large number of people who were, for example, children in state care in the South Australian case," he said in September.

"What this royal commission is asking us to do is to basically pick the scabs off those old wounds and start all over again.

"The royal commission are basically a bunch of Johnnie-come-latelies poking their nose into [a] space where they can be all care and no responsibility because they don't intend paying any of the bills."

Leonie Sheedy from the Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) said she wanted to know if that was the opinion of the Premier and the South Australian Government as a whole.

"We want to let the people in his electorate know that his comments on national redress and the royal commission were really insensitive to care leavers who have been abused in South Australian orphanages and children's homes," she said.

"I can't believe that somebody of his standing, the Deputy Premier and he's a barrister, would be so insensitive. And I want to know if the Premier of South Australia also endorses those comments that, you know the royal commission are the Johnnie-come-latelies.

"I'm looking for a response from [Premier] Jay Weatherill to deny that that's not how the whole of the South Australian Government feels about the royal commission and the abuse in orphanages in children's homes and foster care in South Australia."

Ms Sheedy said she believed Mr Rau's comments showed a deep misunderstanding and a lack of empathy for the victims and a "total ignorance" of the issue.

She said all states and territories should support a national redress scheme, which is urgently needed.

"It's long overdue for these churches and charities that enjoyed the taxpayers dollars, that they are taxed and that they contribute to a national independent redress scheme and I urge the Prime Minister to put this on the COAG's agenda for the November meeting."