Shannon Deery: Victorian government’s hypocrisy when it comes to handling child abusers
Dan Andrews’ words after George Pell’s death smack of hypocrisy given the state government’s record when it comes to dealing with victims of abuse.
Opinion
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In death, as in life, Cardinal George Pell remains a divisive figure.
Probably more so: the fact he can no longer be defamed will no doubt embolden his detractors. Even before he was first accused of child sexual abuse in 2002, Pell courted controversy. As he climbed the ranks of the church he was plagued by criticism about his unrelenting conservative views.
He railed against same-sex marriage, contraception, and abortion, dubbing the latter: “a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people”.
The public at large, and many inside the church, found his unrelenting views unfathomable.
But he was never one to be swayed by public opinion, and accepted the criticism as the unavoidable price of presenting the teachings of his Catholic Church.
For 21 years he vehemently defended claims he, like so many other Catholic clergy, was a paedophile. Many accusations were made, but none were ever proven.
He may have spent 13 months imprisoned for the abuse of two choirboys, but the High Court said he should never have been jailed.
His record will be permanently stained by damning findings of the The Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse. It was scathing of his Melbourne Response, introduced shortly after he became Archbishop of Melbourne in 1996.
The scheme was one of the Church’s first to offer redress to victims of paedophile priests, but the commission found it actually discouraged victims from going to police. It also released the church of any further liability but capped payments to survivors at $50,000, later increasing the maximum to $75,000.
More problematic was the commission’s findings that Cardinal Pell knew about child abuse by colleagues as early as the 1970s. He had also been involved in the shuffling of evil paedophile Gerald Ridsdale.
This same man was appointed to the Order of Australia in 2005 for service to the Catholic Church, in particular for raising debate on education and social justice.
When he died last week Premier Daniel Andrews stayed uncharacteristically silent.
There was no media release or acknowledgment for more than 24 hours. When it did come, Andrews backed in victims of clerical child sexual abuse and rejected the prospect of the government honouring Pell in any way, particularly with a state funeral.
It’s likely Pell wouldn’t have wanted one — he was honoured with a Vatican funeral last week.
The Premier’s comments echoed those made after the High Court overturned Pell’s convictions in 2020 which were seen by many as a tacit disapproval of the decision. “We see you, we believe you, we support you and you’re at the centre of not only our thoughts, not only our words, but our actions,” he said last week.
“We should never ever forget that predator brothers and priests were systematically moved around knowingly … and we will never ever forget victims, survivors of institutional child sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.”
Strong words.
But they smack of hypocrisy given the Victorian government’s own record when it comes to dealing with victims of abuse.
The Victorian Department of Education is facing multiple legal actions over its handling of paedophile teachers.
It rarely simply sees, believes and supports complainants.
Ask lawyers involved in suing the department and they’ll say more often than not it fails to adhere to the government’s own model litigant guidelines.
The guidelines include acting fairly, not causing unnecessary delay and not relying on technical arguments. At one school, Beaumaris Primary School, it has been estimated more than 100 children may have been abused around the 1970s. The school has emerged as a haven for paedophile teachers, with at least four known offenders now identified as working together there in the 1970s. The department’s handling of abuse claims at the time has been likened to the way the Catholic Church shuffled paedophile priests between parishes for decades.
More than 1000 claims have been made for abuse in Victoria under the National Redress Scheme, about one third relating to government schools. It has prompted a campaign by victims of abuse in government schools for recognition. Multiple inquiries, including the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, have largely ignored offending in government schools. Parliament’s 2013 report into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and other Non-Government Organisations did not include government organisations.
Representatives on behalf of a group of victims from Beaumaris have been begging to meet with Mr Andrews. They’ve been met with silence.
On the eve of November’s election, the state government announced a redress scheme for victims of abuse while in Victorian orphanages. It made no mention of those who suffered historical abuse in government schools, but later clarified they too could be included. The rampant abuse of children throughout the 1960s to late 1990s was not specific to religious institutions, let alone the Catholic Church.
Given his criticisms of the Church, maybe Andrews will see fit to meet with the victims of Beaumaris, to show he truly sees, believes, and supports them too.
Originally published as Shannon Deery: Victorian government’s hypocrisy when it comes to handling child abusers
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