ANOTHER four public hearing dates have been announced for the state’s parliamentary inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations.
The Family and Community Development Committee of the Parliament of Victoria yesterday announced full-day hearings for November 9 and 23.
Half-day hearings have also been set for November 12 and 26.
Details of the first two hearings, scheduled for this Friday and Monday, were also announced yesterday, with eight witnesses to appear before the committee.
All six hearings will be open to the
public and held in the Legislative Council Committee Room on level one in Parliament House.
The inquiry was announced earlier this year after the leaking of a Victoria Police internal report.
The report drew links between the abuse and as many as 40 suicides.
Details of sustained abuse by Catholic priests and brothers between 1963 and 1985 at St Alipius Christian Brothers School and St Patrick’s College in Ballarat were revealed in a group submission to the inquiry.
Public submissions to the inquiry closed last month, with the Catholic Church in Victoria acknowledging 620 cases of criminal child abuse by clergy upheld in the past 16 years.
