http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/child-abuse/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/child-abuse-in-churches-is-not-yet-history/ It’s heartening to see Australian politicians taking a stand around Catholic clergy abuse, but the calls to action this week by Senator Nick Xenophon and Victorian MP Anne Barker don’t quite go far enough.  We now need a Federal Government led, transparent national inquiry and mandatory reporting of all crimes revealed within the Church environment. The Cloyne report, an independent state report released in Ireland into Catholic clergy abuse last week is the fourth inquiry in six years. All of the reports have been damning, chronicling the repeated failure of the Church to protect children, bring the guilty to justice and make the welfare of victims paramount. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/child-abuse-in-churches-is-not-yet-history/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/child-abuse-in-churches-is-not-yet-history/#item6354 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/unforgiveable-sin-confessing-to-child-abuse/ Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/unforgiveable-sin-confessing-to-child-abuse/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/unforgiveable-sin-confessing-to-child-abuse/#item6338 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-failing-to-decimate-child-sex-abuse/ We will never eradicate paedophilia or child sex abuse. This admission is implicit in the naming of SA Police’s Operation Decimate, which is the Sexual Crime Investigation Branch’s child sex exploitation investigation. I fervently hope they are using the term ‘decimate’ in its bastardised but generally accepted definition – to destroy a significant proportion. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-failing-to-decimate-child-sex-abuse/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-failing-to-decimate-child-sex-abuse/#item5746 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/throwing-money-at-child-abuse-wont-make-it-go-away/ Abused kids deserve better than spin. As the Federal Convenor of Parliamentarians Against Child Abuse and Neglect, I applaud the Baillieu Coalition Government for making the welfare of all Victorian children a priority in 2011.  The announcement last week of an inquiry into the systemic problems in Victoria’s child protection system is overdue and welcome.  Such an inquiry is much needed not only for all those who work in the child protection system but more importantly, for those who are living with abuse.  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/throwing-money-at-child-abuse-wont-make-it-go-away/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/throwing-money-at-child-abuse-wont-make-it-go-away/#item5040 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-year-on-remembering-the-forgotten-australians/ ”…it is highly likely that every Australian either was, is related to, works with or knows someone who experienced childhood in an institution or out of home care environment.’ – Forgotten Australians, p. xv” At 8.30pm tonight SBS will screen a documentary called The Forgotten Australians, timed to air on the first anniversary of the national Apology last year by then prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to the people who have become known by this term.  Who are the Forgotten Australians – and why was the Prime Minister saying sorry?  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-year-on-remembering-the-forgotten-australians/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-year-on-remembering-the-forgotten-australians/#item4477 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/33000-reasons-to-act-on-child-abuse/ This week is National Child Protection Week 2010 and this year NAPCAN is highlighting the stark fact that when we know 33,000 children are abused each year, child protection is everyone’s business. And they are just the ones we know about. These statistics have no place in 21st century Australia. What would happen if, in a single year, 33,000 Australian children became ill in an epidemic, with some children dying and many children being damaged for life? There would be a national outcry to intervene and stop it. Why isn’t there a similar outcry for children who have been abused or neglected? The abuse and neglect of children continues year after year, yet it seems no one hears these children. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/33000-reasons-to-act-on-child-abuse/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/33000-reasons-to-act-on-child-abuse/#item3983 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/watching-the-kids-swim-with-dennis-ferguson/ Just to be absolutely clear, smashing convicted paedophile and child rapist Dennis Ferguson over the head with a medicine ball is not the ideal way to respond to his presence in a city gymnasium. That said, Ferguson’s presence in a city gymnasium is not an ideal situation either. Especially when he just sits there, dressed in a business suit, not even exercising at all, but outside at the pool where he can gaze at dozens of primary school kids who are learning to swim. Especially when he times his visits to coincide with the swimming lessons, either the primary school kids in the mornings, or the high school students when he visits in the afternoon. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/watching-the-kids-swim-with-dennis-ferguson/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/watching-the-kids-swim-with-dennis-ferguson/#item3547 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/abused-as-a-child-with-an-angry-message-to-australia/ SHY Keenan (corr) doesn’t like to call herself a victim nor does she like the term survivor. Both imply a resolution to an issue. But from the age of four she was systematically raped, beaten, degraded, filmed then, at the age of 10, sold to a gang of dockworkers in the UK for four more years of abuse. In 2000 more than 25 years after the abuse, she armed herself with a small camera lent by the BBC and filmed one of her attackers boasting about his actions. Two years later she watched in satisfaction from the back of Liverpool Crown Court as three of her attackers, including a stepfather, were handed jail terms. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/abused-as-a-child-with-an-angry-message-to-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/abused-as-a-child-with-an-angry-message-to-australia/#item1929 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/for-leonie-for-vera-for-everyone-who-suffered/ In 1957 a little girl’s life was changed forever. She was three years old when her family was torn apart, when she was separated from her brothers and sisters and sent to St Catherine’s Orphanage, in Geelong. For the next thirteen years she lived in constant fear of being punished for every minor indiscretion and with the empty feeling of a childhood deprived of love.  She wouldn’t see her brother again for forty years.  Hers is one of half a million stories. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/for-leonie-for-vera-for-everyone-who-suffered/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/for-leonie-for-vera-for-everyone-who-suffered/#item1750 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/acknowledging-the-anguish-of-those-we-forgot/ - This is the speech given by Labor MP and Punch contributor Richard Marles this afternoon on the Forgotten Australians. The Punch will run some of the MPs’ addresses this week. Today we have heard just a few of the half a million stories of the Forgotten Australians, each as sad and as powerful as the last. Collectively they represent a well of pain and a great wrong which today our nation acknowledged. Among those are the stories of the co-founders of Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) - Joanna Penglase and Leonie Sheedy. These two were the driving force behind the original Senate inquiry. They have been the driving force behind the National Apology. Their shoulders have provided support for a multitude of Forgotten Australians. Their ears have heard a thousand stories and in the process provided relief. They are great Australians. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/acknowledging-the-anguish-of-those-we-forgot/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/acknowledging-the-anguish-of-those-we-forgot/#item1748 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Moves are afoot in Ireland to lift the sacred secrecy of confession - so priests will be jailed if they don’t report child sex abuses revealed to them. SA Senator Nick Xenophon has been pushing for similar changes in Australia, arguing that innocent children deserve more protection than religious practice. We asked him for some more details. What changes would you like to see in the way confessions are handled? The admission of child abuse to a priest during confession should not be exempted from mandatory reporting requirements.  No church should be complicit in the cover up of child abuse just so some paedophile can attempt to clear his conscience.  The rule of law should come before religious beliefs, and there should be no exceptions.