AUSTRALIA
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The Royal Commission into child sexual abuse will focus on institutional responses. This means, effectively, that there will be much consideration given to background checks, and monitoring, of people associated with organisations working with children. This is an obviously important area of concern.
However, there is an equally important consideration which the Royal Commission may well miss. It will consider what makes for a “fit and proper” person to work with children, but is likely to give minimal, if any, consideration to what makes for a “fit and proper” organisation.
The term “fit and proper” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “fit” and the Norman-French word “proper”. Both words mean the same thing, that is, acceptable to the authorities. Most countries around the world have a highly-developed set of laws concerning fit and proper persons. Some people are not permitted to be company directors, for example.
There have been far fewer laws concerning fit and proper organisations. As one academic has noted, “A further difficulty is to know how much bad behaviour can be tolerated inside an organisation before the whole enterprise is deemed unfit.” This factor has been receiving much attention in the U.K., particularly in relation to whether Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB group is a fit and proper organisation to hold a broadcasting license.
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