KEYNOTE ADDRESS: 14TH AUSTRALASIAN CONFERENCE ON CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
Tuesday 31 March 2015 PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND JUDICIAL UNDERSTANDING
Justice Peter McClellan
Commissioner, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
The Royal Commission has now been in operation for more than two years. We have completed the public hearings for 25
case studies which in most cases have been concerned with the failure of institutions to manage their affairs to
adequately protect the children in their care. We have looked at churches, religious schools, and state run
institutions. We recently looked at issues in relation to out of home care. But we have many more and varied tasks to
complete.
One of the obligations in our Terms of Reference requires the Commissioners to consider what “institutions and
governments should do to address, or alleviate the impact of past and future child sexual abuse … including, in
particular, in ensuring justice for victims 2
through the provision of redress by institutions, process for referral for investigation and prosecution and support
services.