There are 3 main reasons that the Commission must and therefore will fail.
Point 1) It is not malicious, hysterical, or paranoid to state that no government has ever called a Royal Commission without knowing what the outcomes will be.
I and other parents have given written submissions, personal testimony, reams of documents, etc, to a state committee investigation into Sexual Assault Conviction Rates (Oct 2004), the Teachers Registration Board (March 2003-Nov 2004), and the subsequent Statutory Authorities Review Committee hearing into the TRB (Sept 2007-July 2011), and the Mullighan Inquiry (Feb 2005- 2008).
Each time the people involved have misrepresented our evidence, allegations, etc, in complying with the cover-up of the abuse and/or the failures of their colleagues.
When Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Royal Commission, she specifically identified those who had "averted their eyes" or committed "acts of ommission", and therefore had failed children and were complicit in the abuse and the cover-up of that abuse.
MP Patrick Secker wrote to her on parents behalf (2007/08) about Child Abuse issues at St Martins Lutheran School, Mt Gambier, and Ms Gillard (then Education Minister) wrote back saying it was 'a state matter for the state to resolve'.
I wrote to Ms Gillard at the same time, explaining that 'the state' was clearly directing the cover-up, eg, then AG Michael Atkinson censoring Child Protection Service reports before release; Mike Rann and Jay Weatherill officially stopped Comm Mullighan investigating the St Martins issue; MP Rory McEwen attacking us in the media; etc. (see other blogs)
I also made the point to the then Education Minister that this was a national issue not a state issue because the Lutherans operate schools nationally from their headquarters in Adelaide, and Comm Mullighan and Frida Briggs had told us parents that the teacher was working again in Victoria.
In short, the Rann Labor state government had clearly failed (deliberately and/or through incompetence) to address what was clearly a national issue anyway.
Ms Gillard's office refused me any response, but her letter to Mr Secker directs him (us parents) back to the Rann state government, the people she knew were complicit in and ultimately responsible for the cover-up, and therefore;
Point 2) Ms Gillard is guilty by her own definition of being complicit in the cover-up of the abuse of children at St Martins Lutheran School (since a teacher's removal in 2002 - see blogs re Child Protection)
Julia Gillard claims the Royal Commission will target people in authority like her close personal friends and colleagues Mike Rann, Jay Weatherill, Micheal Atkinson, etc, the people who helped put her there, whom she knows are complicit in covering up the abuse of children; it's just not going to happen.
Like every police service in the country, the Queensland police should be scrutinised about their multiple failures across decades, not given a position on the Commission (former QPS Comm Mr Atkinson).
The media in South Australia, and particularly in Mt Gambier, know what has happened re St Martins, and are either corrupt or compliant, completely refusing to acknowledge the issue that has definably played a role in the creation of the Royal Commission; the ABC TV is just ignoring the issue despite my attempts to contact them.
Again, why do the ABC go over and over the same stories re the Catholics, but won't ask the Lutherans one single question?
Point 3) Julia Gillard still intends to allow religious organisations exemptions from Anti-Discrimination Laws to legally discriminate against gay people (amongst others) and also to keep the 'sanctity of the confessional'.
For decades politicians, police, etc, have just stood back and watch it all happen; religious and other organisations have operated outside the law with abject unaccountability and it has resulted in the wholesale abuse of generations of Australian children.
So what is suddenly going to change now?
Julia Gillard is responding to public activism and outrage, not at least for self-preservation; she is not being pro-active, and I cannot see that there is any genuine desire to address this issue.
Tomorrow: Labor Has Privatised Health Services in South Australia
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