New Delhi: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered a national apology on Monday to survivors and their families who had suffered institutional child sexual abuse. The prime minister acknowledged the government’s failure to protect the children from systemic abuse.The apology followed the culmination of a five-year government inquiry that exposed institutional sexual abuse as well as the countless cover-ups of such allegations. According to the New York Times, the investigation was perhaps the most in-depth inquiry carried out by any country to examine abuse of children across religious and secular platforms.“Today, as a nation, we confront our failure to listen, to believe, and to provide justice,” Morrison told lawmakers in the Australian capital, Canberra. “We say sorry. To the children we failed, sorry. To the parents whose trust was betrayed and who have struggled to pick up the pieces, sorry.”Apology not enoughScott Morrison repeated Monday’s apology in a speech before nearly 800 survivors, some of whom began to cry, images broadcast on television showed.“It was very, very intense to be in that room,” Graeme, a survivor who identified himself only by his first name, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “I looked around and I thought to myself there is not a room of stronger people anywhere in the country.”He added, “I am proud to be a victim and I am proud of all victims.”Many survivors also walked out of the room stating that an apology was not enough. “He kept saying ‘sorry, sorry, sorry,’” said Paul Auchettl to the New York Times, whose abuse by a Catholic brother started when he was 11. “It’s like he didn’t know what else to say. We need somebody to outline a plan forward. It’s not enough to say sorry.”A woman reacts as she watches Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison deliver the National Apology to victims and survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, October 22, 2018. Credit: AAP/Lukas Coch/via ReutersRoyal commission report on institutional responses to child sexual abuseJulia Gillard, then prime minister of Australia, had announced a royal commission to look into institutional responses to child sexual abuse in 2012. In response to survivors and activists demanding an enquiry into child sexual abuse, Gillard told The Guardian, “There has been a systemic failure to respond to it. There have been too many revelations of adults who have averted their eyes from this evil.” The commission was instituted following allegations levelled by Peter Fox, a detective chief inspector within New South Wales. Fox accused that the Church knew about the abuse and did nothing but protect the paedophile, according to The Guardian. The enquiry delved into more than 8,000 cases of sexual abuse, most of them at religious and state-run institutions responsible for keeping children safe, according to Reuters. The report found that child sexual abuse was a deep-seated malaise that spanned decades. The report revealed that tens of thousands of children had been abused in schools, religious organisations and other institutions. Religious ministers and school teachers were found to be most common among the perpetrators. Announced in December last year, the commission made 189 recommendations to the government which is yet to decide if it will adopt them. One of the recommendations required a Catholic priest to report child abuse if they learn about it in confession. According to Reuters, Australia set up a redressal scheme this year to pay abuse survivors compensation of up to A$150,000 ($106,000) eachIn August, a top Catholic body, the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, however, said it would not comply with proposed state laws.(with agency inputs)
