AUSTRALIA
Victoria Inquiry
Each year hundreds of thousands of children and young people in Victoria spend time involved with religious and other non-government organisations. These organisations provide a broad range of valuable services and social programs including child care, education, social activities, spiritual guidance and sports and recreation programs.
Some organisations also provide temporary or permanent residential care away from the family.
The overwhelming majority of children who participate in organisational activities or who are cared for by personnel in non-government organisations are safe and they gain great benefit from engaging in such activities and services. …
There has been a substantial body of credible evidence presented to the Inquiry and ultimately concessions made by senior representatives of religious bodies, including the Catholic Church, that they had taken steps with the direct objective of concealing wrongdoing.
The Committee welcomed the commitment made by many organisations during the course of the Inquiry to actively cooperate with any new schemes that the Victorian Government establishes in response to the Inquiry’s recommendations. The CEO of the Catholic Church’s Truth, Justice and Healing Council, Mr Francis Sullivan, recently stated that the community should ‘judge us on our actions’.3 It is reasonable for the community to expect that organisations will honour their undertakings.
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