Saturday, January 19, 2013

Australian abuse commission named

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has named the commissioners and terms of reference for the nationwide inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which will include submissions relating to abuse in the Catholic Church.

She said the six commissioners will be led by Justice Peter McClellan of the New South Wales Supreme Court, who worked as counsel assisting the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia.

They will also comprise prominent Catholic layman Robert Fitzgerald, a former NSW State President of the St Vincent de Paul Society and Caritas Australia national committee member; former Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Murray, who was instrumental in raising the plight of British child migrants; Family Court judge Jennifer Coate, a former president of the Children's Court in Victoria; former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson; and indigenous consultant psychiatrist Professor Helen Milroy of Western Australia.