MS PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (10:30:17) — In a recent adjournment I reinforced the critical need for governments to stop perceiving religious organisations as above the law when it comes to child sexual abuse. I have been working toward this change for more than a decade and have urged the church to put victims’ needs ahead of its desire to defend its reputation. Sadly, victims continue to suffer.
I would like to commend Nationals leader Peter Walsh who last week announced that if the coalition won the Victorian election, they would amend the law to allow sexual abuse revealed in confession to be reported to police and used as evidence. That was even echoed straight from the Vatican this week, with Pope Francis issuing a letter to Catholics around the world deploring the crime and cover-up of child sexual abuse by priests. He said:
The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced …
And:
Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening …
