Lengthy process. Now, will there be a plan to change things?
Quote:Police forces failed in their duty to protect Australian children because they often refused to believe their complaints about sexual abuse, the royal commission's chairman says.
Child protection agencies also failed to listen to children, leaving them in situations of danger, Justice Peter McClellan said in some of his final remarks before the commission's final sitting.
The chairman of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse gave a speech in Melbourne this afternoon, critical of Australia's major social institutions for seriously failing to protect children from paedophiles.
"It is not a case of a few 'rotten apples'," he said.
"The problems have been so widespread, and the nature of the abuse so heinous, that it is difficult to comprehend.
"Across many decades many institutions failed our children. Our child protection, criminal and civil justice systems let them down.
Not just the catholic church, though.
Quote:Dr Vivienne Waller is a lawyer who represents dozens of alleged victims of sexual abuse, many of whom have participated in the royal commission.
She said her clients welcomed Justice McClellan's comments.
"Those of us who have been working with and looking after survivors for the last 25 years know that survivors will be vindicated by this," she told the ABC.
"Our clients have been very grateful for the research and the forensic investigation of the commission, which has basically validated what we've all known in our heart of hearts for a very long time.
"The Catholic Church has presided over the systemic and widespread sexual abuse of children."
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