Turnbull vows to act over abuses

MALCOLM Turnbull is promising to put child safety first as he prepares an October 22 national apology to child sex abuse survivors for “shocking” crimes committed against them.

A national office of child safety will also be set up and a nationwide study done to determine where abuse is happening in order to prevent it in the future.

The Prime Minister yesterday outlined the Government’s formal response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Canberra.

“The survivors have told their stories, many of them for the first time. They have been heard, and they have been believed, many of them for the first and only time,” Mr Turnbull told reporters.

“Now that we’ve uncovered the shocking truth, we must do everything in our power to honour the bravery of the thousands of people who came forward.”

The Government has not rejected any of the royal commission’s recommendations.

“We accept or accept in principle 104 of the remaining 122 recommendations directed wholly or in part to the Australian Government,” Mr Turnbull said.

The other 18 recommendations involve all levels of government.

Mr Turnbull said the national apology to survivors of institutional sex abuse would be delivered on October 22, in National Children’s Week.

“It revealed that for too long the reporting of this abuse was met with indifference and denial by the very adults and institutions who were supposed to protect them,” Mr Turnbull said.

“Children’s safety should always be put first and we know thanks to the royal commission’s work, in far, far too many cases it wasn’t.”

He confirmed Western Australia would sign up to the redress scheme before its start date on July 1, meaning every

FOR TOO LONG THE REPORTING OF THIS ABUSE WAS MET WITH INDIFFERENCE AND DENIAL …

state and territory would be covered. The maximum redress payment will be $150,000, with the average payment expected to be $76,000.

Laws to put in place the redress scheme – which has the support of all major churches – are set to pass the Senate by the end of the month.

Federal minister David Gillespie has been given responsibility for children’s policy issues and the Home Affairs Department will maintain a national “working with children checks” database.

State and territory governments are co-operating on another recommendation, dealing with religious confessions and their role within the legal system.

PM MALCOLM TURNBULL