Late last year the federal government was dragged kicking and screaming into holding a Royal Commission into child abuse after several victims came forward and police officers told of how they were forced to abandon investigations into cases due to political pressure. Opinion polls released since the announcement have shown that 97% of Australians support the Royal Commission.
The ABC's Four Corners and 7:30 programs have been highlighting cases for a while now, and the red flags went up recently when they presented the latest disgrace by the Catholic church. It concerned a priest who had molested several victims, but the priest wasn't named. He was referred to continually as "Father F". It highlighted the chief reason why - in this country - child molestation was always referred to as the unspeakable crime and swept under the carpet. Our repressive defamation, and now privacy laws, have prevented a proper discussion about the issue and made the media reluctant to pursue cases.
If the Royal Commission is to make an impact into stopping the crime then action must be taken to grant immunity to media organisations and victims from being sued for defamation or to have other legal or administrative action taken against them. We have some of the most oppressive defamation laws in the world and the imposition of privacy and human rights BS over the top of that is just absurd. The Royal Commission will be effectively neutered if the media cannot name names and go into detail about matters being investigated. The lawyers might not like having a lucrative source of business taken away from them, but we urgently need reform in this area.
The whole issue of child molestation has been muddied over the years by waves of sexual liberation which - at various times - have muddied the water as to what acceptable and unacceptable conduct is all about.
I have experience in this field, not as a victim but as someone who heard first hand about the activities of pedophiles in my workplace. In 1992 as a 33 year old I collected shopping trolleys at a suburban shopping centre. I supervised young teens, and several other kids hung around us while we were doing our work. I started hearing disturbing stories about the bootmaker in the shopping centre, how he'd lure kids to the back of the shop and how a few of them had near misses involving him. There was a familiar pattern to the stories and the usual MO of child molesters was becoming apparent.
After more and more kids told me what was going on I said to one of them over lunch in the centre "Have you told anybody about this? Have you gone to your parents about it?" The kids told me they were too scared to say anything because they had to live in the local area and shop at the centre. I said that I would do something about it. The following morning when I woke up there was a note in my letter box telling me in no uncertain terms to keep my mouth shut or else I would find myself out of a job and in hospital.
We now live in more enlightened times when child abuse is a relatively open matter. Hopefully the victims and those nearby will not be intimidated and we can see some action taken to bring action to bear on the issue. Hiding behind legalistic niceties and being hidebound by privacy and defamation laws will help nobody and will stymie the work of the Royal Commission and sweep the more serious cases back under the carpet.
