The ACT Attorney-General, Gordon Ramsay has introduced new laws into the Legislative Assembly to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Mr Ramsay said the new legislation would make clear the obligation of those in a position of authority in an institution who had responsibility for the care and wellbeing of children, to take action to protect them from the risk of being sexually abused.
“Sexual abuse of a child is a terrible crime that is perpetrated against the most vulnerable in our community,” Mr Ramsay said.
“It is a fundamental breach of the trust which children are entitled to place in adults.”
He said the changes contained in the new laws would build on the Government’s earlier reforms, passed in February, that responded to the Royal Commission’s recommendations at the time.
Mr Ramsay said the new legislation would create a new offence applying to people in authority in an institution who failed to protect against child sexual abuse.
It would create a procedural mechanism for charging offences as a ‘course of conduct’ for child sexual abuse as well as ensuring that sentences for child sexual abuse were aligned with current sentencing practice rather than the sentencing practice at the time of the offending.
There would also be an extension of special measures for vulnerable witnesses who gave evidence in court to reduce, as far as possible, the trauma associated with giving evidence in sexual abuse and other matters.
“The Bill continues the ACT Government’s implementation of the Royal Commission recommendations as a priority, and will be followed next year by further criminal and civil justice law reforms as recommended by the commission,” Mr Ramsay said.
