ACT 'ready to assist' royal commission - ABC Online

Updated November 13, 2012 08:18:32

Church and government leaders in the ACT are pledging their support to a national royal commission into child sexual abuse.

The wide ranging inquiry will investigate child abuse in institutions such as schools, churches and foster homes, and look at how authorities responded.

Pressure had been building on the Federal Government to react to growing social and political outrage at the latest series of revelations of paedophilia in society.

Most are centred on the Catholic Church, but that will not be the only focus of the inquiry, which will look into claims across the breadth of society.

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher says she stands ready to assist the royal commission in any way she can.

"I welcome it. I think certainly with the amount of victims that have come forward, particularly in the recent weeks, we do need to have a national look at this," she said.

"I have no doubt that there'll be people who'll want to participate locally and I think a national approach is the way to go.

"The only way people can understand and learn and change systems is when you have a far-reaching inquiry that looks at this."

The Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Stuart Robinson, says he welcomes the scope of the inquiry and will cooperate fully with the process.

"I think what it will do is identify some of the weaknesses and then suggest ways forward which cooperatively we'll embrace totally so that we can say with a very clear heart that we have processes and protocols in place which will stop people from being treated in a way which is inappropriate," he said.

Bishop Robinson says he supports any move that promotes transparency and protection of people.

"Invariably it will turn up things which will cause individuals and churches a measure of pain but they do need to be dealt with and people need to be cared for in such a way that they know they're loved and precious," he said.

Doctor Sue Packer from the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect says the commission is long overdue.

"At the same time I have reservations about how much it can achieve on its own and my hope is that it will make us more aware of these issues so we're able to protect more children in the future," she said.

Topics: anglicans, states-and-territories, royal-commissions, act, canberra-2600

First posted November 13, 2012 07:50:22