PM Rejects Church Sex Abuse Inquiry
Originally published by AAP, June 2, 2002
A royal commission into child sex abuse cover-ups within churches would be a witch-hunt, Prime Minister John Howard said.
Mr Howard said the government had considered, but rejected, establishing such a royal commission.
"I fear that a royal commission of this kind would just become an unending witch-hunt," Mr Howard told Adelaide radio station 5DN.
"There is no doubt that sex abuse has occurred in a number of institutions, not only the churches and not only in private schools but also, I daresay, in government schools and other institutions over the years.
"If I believed that people didn't realise that sex abuse has occurred and still does occur … there would be a case for having some kind of royal commission.
"But there have been umpteen inquiries by state governments, there have been a lot of inquiries by individual bodies and I'm unpersuaded that great benefit would come out of it."
Mr Howard said Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell, accused of trying to silence sex abuse victims after a television report claimed he offered to pay hush money to victims when he was Melbourne Archbishop, was a strong leader of great integrity.
"I have always found him to be a person of great intelligence and somebody who I respect enormously," Mr Howard said.
"I may not agree with him on everything, I'm not expected to, but I have a great regard for him as a person—I think he's a very dedicated, sincere man.
"I don't know the circumstances of this situation.
"Clearly there was a crime committed by a priest that he knew … the implication is that he's implicated and he's linked to it, and that is quite unfair.
"I don't want to be unfair to the young man who appeared on the 60 Minutes program either, I don't know him, I don't know the background.
"All I can say to you is that the archbishop impresses me as a strong leader and as a person who has got a great deal of integrity.
"I think the Catholic Church feels a sense of responsibility and shame about the small number of its priests who have behaved in an appalling fashion and I believe they are endeavouring to tackle the problem.
"My reason for opposing a royal commission is I don't think it would unearth things, generically speaking, that we don't already know about.
"It would just become an opportunity for, in many cases, uncorroborated allegations to be made and a witch-hunt and I don't think that's going to help anyone."
