“We have called our report Betrayal of Trust,” said Victorian MP
Georgie Crozier as she presented the findings of the parliamentary
inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other
non-government organisations.“Children were betrayed by trusted figures in organisations of high standing and suffered unimaginable harm,” she said.
“Parents of these children experienced a betrayal beyond comprehension. And the community was betrayed by the failure of organisations to protect children in their care.”
The report’s criticism of the Catholic church is unsparing.
Its recommendations are radical.
If adopted they would strip the Catholic church of its virtual immunity in the courts and compel religious leaders of all faiths to report child abuse to the police.
The Victorian premier, Denis Napthine, has fallen short of accepting the committee’s recommendations but describes them as “a strong basis for reforms that will make a real difference for the future”.
The cross-party inquiry by MPs from both houses of the Victorian parliament established last year by then-premier Ted Baillieu received 578 submissions and held 162 hearings. It referred 135 fresh claims of abuse to the police.
The focus on the failings of the Catholic church was “an inevitable product of the volume and content of the submissions the committee received,” member Andrea Coote told the Legislative Council.
“The Catholic church,” she said, “minimised and trivialised the problem; contributed to abuse not being disclosed, or not being responded to at all prior to 1990; ensured that the Victorian community remained uninformed of the abuse; and ensured that perpetrators were not held accountable with the tragic result being that children continued to be abused.
“We found that today’s church leaders view the current question of abuse of children as a ‘short term embarrassment’, which should be handled as quickly as possible to cause the least damage to the church’s standing . They do not see the problems as raising questions about the church’s own culture.”
The committee has recommended that priests and other religious leaders face imprisonment if they fail to report or if they conceal criminal child abuse; or if they knowingly put a child at risk of abuse or fail to remove children to safety.
Even more radical are recommendations that would open the courts to victims of abuse by clergy.
All faiths would be exposed by legal changes that gave victims more time to take action and clarified the legal responsibility to protect children from offenders.
But the particular legal protection now enjoyed by the Catholic church may be swept away if the Victorian government accepts the recommendation that the church – like other churches – becomes a legal entity under Australian law.
Crozier told the Legislative Council that continuing benefits to the church should depend on such a change being accepted.
“We propose that organisations receiving tax exemptions or funding from the Victorian government should be incorporated and adequately insured.”
The committee also recommends an entirely independent “alternative avenue for justice” for victims who do not want to fight their cases through the courts.
This would replace the two protocols of the Catholic church: the Melbourne Response that operates in that archdiocese and Towards Healing that operates in the rest of Australia.
Finally, the committee recommends an independent statutory body be established to monitor the measures taken by non-government organisations to ensure children are safe in their hands.
Victims of child abuse, their supporters and advocates present in the gallery of the Legislative Council gave the report a standing ovation.
Down below sat Ted Baillieu whose courage in setting up the inquiry was commended by committee members.
All parties in the Legislative Council backed the report. The Victorian government has yet to indicate which, if any, of the committee’s recommendations will be adopted.
Archbishop Denis Hart called a press conference to welcome the report.
“The Catholic church in Victoria supports the inquiry’s key recommendations,” he said.
But under questioning from the press it was clear that a good deal of detail has yet to be hammered out with the government.
“The committee’s report is rightly called Betrayal of Trust,” said the archbishop. “I have spoken before about the betrayal and the irreparable damage it has caused. It is the worst betrayal of trust in my lifetime in the Catholic church.”