This is the greatest Royal Commission in Australia’s history. Senator Derryn Hinch
In August 2012, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard was in the New South Wales city of Newcastle – the same day as the funeral of John Pirona, who had been abused by a Catholic priest at school. His body was found in his car, along with a note, that read ‘…too much pain.’
That was the important moment. The gathering community voices, and the gathering sense that there was never going to be the deep response there needed to be if it was left to individual institutions. Julia Gillard Former Prime Minister
Three months later, she called the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Five years later, its work is almost done.
ABC journalist Paul Kennedy investigates Australia’s biggest cover-up: the decades of abuse in religious and state institutions, from elite inner city schools, to remote Aboriginal missions.
With him is Chrissie Foster, whose two daughters were raped at primary school by their parish priest, thirty years after the Catholic Church was first alerted to his abuse.
Together, they look at the milestones that led to the Royal Commission being called – from the first police cover-up in the 1970s, to the resignation of a Governor-General.
They hear the story firsthand from key figures, like Julia Gillard – and the survivors, some of whom have never spoken publicly before.
The dam wall has well and truly broken. No one will ever be able to damn these stories again. Ted Baillieu, Former Premier of Victoria
