In the mid 1990s the Wood Royal Commission undertook the first public investigation of child sexual abuse in NSW. Survivors of child sexual abuse came forward and tried to tell their stories. They spoke of abuse being committed by powerful people who had the protection of powerful institutions. They were ignored. The institutions didn’t change. The abuse continued. Society, it seemed, just couldn’t accept the scale of the betrayal that is implicit in child sexual abuse.
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When I entered the NSW Parliament in 2010 nothing had changed. The Catholic Church, Anglican Church, Salvation Army, YMCA and other non-government institutions were considered above politics. They did good. They had power. They had best be left alone was the political understanding.
In the face of these institutions stood many brave, and sometimes broken, survivors of abuse. They started coming to see me. Often they came alone. Sometimes they were helped by a lawyer or advocate. They all were saying the same thing. Why is it that no one is listening? What will it take to break down the wall of silence? How can we hold the powerful to account?
Everyone knew the history. This is why I found myself pretty much alone in the NSW Parliament when I spoke up about child sexual abuse. By 2012 many survivors thought they knew what was needed. So too did journalist Joanne McCarthy at the Newcastle Herald. What was needed was a royal commission. When the Herald and my office jointly hosted a public meeting in Newcastle in September 2012 we asked the question: “Do we need a royal commission into child abuse in the Catholic Church and other institutions?” Hundreds of survivors and supporters came to the meeting. Journalist and author Peter FitzSimons spoke. So too did Detective Inspector Peter Fox, who had investigated child abuse in the region. He stood up, walked to the podium and declared: “Too bloody right we need a royal commission.”
Within two months, Prime Minister Julia Gillard did what many thought impossible and established a royal commission with Peter McClellan as its chair. For survivors, and the institutions who failed them, the world has been turned upside down. Where once they were ignored, Justice McClellan and the royal commission team have listened, understood and acted. The churches and so many others have been brought to account. They were forced to see, often in the white light of the public gaze, how appallingly they failed children in their care. More than 8000 survivors told their story, with 2500 cases referred to police and 250 prosecutions already afoot. Some 4000 institutions were referred to the royal commission as places where abuse occurred. But it’s not the statistics, as appalling as they are, that has made the case for change. It is the way the royal commission has given voice to victims and let their stories of tragedy and bravery come through.
The royal commission has exposed the structural failures that leave children at risk. It has exposed the internal failings and the gaping holes in the civil law. It has identified how the justice system is stacked against child victims and it has convinced the Australian public of the need to fix this.
Today every government in the country will receive the royal commission’s final recommendations. Because of this remarkable work the Australian public is on the side of the victims. That public now expects parliaments to act and make the changes needed to keep children safe and deliver respectful compensation for survivors.
