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Allegations
of Abuse |
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Canterbury victims of
child sex abuse are buoyed by an Australian report damning churches and State
institutions. A report presented to
the Australian Senate this week found governments, churches and care agencies
had shown a "complete lack of understanding or ... responsibility for
the level of neglect, abuse and assault that occurred in their
institutions". It called for a
parliamentary apology and a national compensation fund for people who were
abused in institutions and demanded that churches and agencies take full
responsibility or face a royal commission. Male Survivors of
Sexual Abuse manager Ken Clearwater said abuse victims from the St John of
God Marylands school in Christchurch had made submissions to the Australian
investigation. The St John of God Order has its base in Sydney. Clearwater said the
report would provide some encouragement for local abuse victims. He had written
to Prime Minister Helen Clark seeking a similar inquiry in New Zealand, but
was still awaiting a response. "I think it is
great because it could be a benchmark for New Zealand," Clearwater said.
Compensation was not
the key issue for most victims. Clearwater said victims wanted the
institutions involved to admit responsibility for what had happened. Some groups had
apologised for past sexual abuse cases, but that was different from taking or
admitting responsibility, he said. Chris McIsaac, the president
of Australian-based lobby group Broken Rites, said tens of thousands of
children were offered no protection from sexual abuse. "My organisation
has been saying for years that during the last century, abuse and
exploitation of children had been carried out on a large scale. Now we have
the some of the facts and the figures." Clearwater said he was
researching a range of New Zealand institutions including foster homes, Child
Youth and Family, and church organisations in which children had been abused.
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