A STATE government inquiry into the child sexual abuse by religious and non-government organisations is a first step in a very important process, a leading social justice expert has said.
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Former Ballarat academic Professor S. Caroline Taylor, now at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, said the inquiry would help acknowledge a very serious and entrenched problem in society.
"Whilst some people are critical because they believe the government hasn't gone far enough in establishing a royal commission ... I think (it is) a first step in a very important process of acknowledging the very serious and entrenched problems in society," Professor Taylor said.
The year-long inquiry, announced by Premier Ted Baillieu and Attorney-General Robert Clark on Tuesday, is to be conducted by a state parliament committee rather than as a royal commission and will report by April 30, 2013.
Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart and Ballarat Bishop Peter Connors have both pledged to co-operate with the inquiry, which will have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence and produce documents.
The inquiry has drawn a mixed reaction, with victims' group Broken Rites spokesperson Dr Wayne Chamley, among others, offering qualified support for the inquiry.
Dr Wayne Chamley
A Melbourne-based legal expert Angela Sdrinis said the parliamentary inquiry was fatally flawed as it would have to refer a non-cooperating witness to parliament, which would in turn have to find the witness in contempt.
"There are few if any examples of a parliament in Australia having punished a witness for refusal to give evidence or to provide documentation to a parliamentary committee," Ms Sdrinis said.
She said a royal commission had full and direct powers to compel witnesses to appear and documentation to be provided. Witnesses who did not co-operate could be jailed.
Professor Taylor, a leading expert in criminal justice response to victims and survivors, said the inquiry would shed more light on the problem of sexual abuse.
"No other government before this has approved or established any type of inquiry looking into how religious and non-government organisations respond to allegation of child abuse by their personnel," she said.
"Given what has been occurring in the Ballarat diocese, it is really a history of neglect and shame that must be exposed and the wounds must be opened to the light ... allowing some kind of healing.
"By exposing that wound it is the best chance we have to remedy entrenched problems that have existed both in the past and in the present.
