AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times
December 12, 2017
By Joanne McCarthy
The prime minister who instigated the royal commission into sexual abuse says Australians “won’t tolerate” more inaction, and predicts removing tax concessions to push “recalcitrant” churches to act on reforms would win strong public support.
Julia Gillard said Australians would be “waiting and watching” for any sense of church or political delay after the release on Friday of the landmark final report from the five-year long Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“Any sense that this is going to go on the back shelf and gather some dust, the community won’t tolerate it, the public won’t tolerate it,” Ms Gillard told Fairfax Media.
She declined to predict if the royal commission would recommend linking tax concessions to reforms, after a public hearing in March where commission chair Justice Peter McClellan raised a scenario with senior Anglican clergy where the state could intervene by denying financial concessions “unless you get your house in order”.
Ms Gillard said churches, governments and other institutions would need time to respond to the report but public pressure will exist regardless of “what levers are then needed to push some recalcitrants into action”.
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