A new National Office for Child Safety is to be established in the Department of Social Services as one of the Commonwealth’s 104 responses to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Announced by Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, the new office is due to be up and running by next month (July 2018) and will work across Government and other sectors to develop and implement policies and strategies to enhance children’s safety and prevent future harm.
Mr Turnbull said the response to the Royal Commission was wide-ranging and extensive.
“The Government will take action on all recommendations where we are responsible and we will continue to work in partnership with States and Territories to ensure children are safe from abuse in institutional care,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Of the 409 recommendations, 84 deal with redress matters which the Government is addressing through the establishment of the National Redress Scheme scheduled to commence on 1 July.”
He said that of the remaining 325 recommendations, 122 were directed wholly or in part to the Federal Government and 104 had been accepted or accepted in principle, with the other 18 noted or requiring further consideration.
The Prime Minister stressed the Commonwealth had not rejected any of the Royal Commission’s recommendations.
“Our expectation is that non-Government institutions will respond to each of the Royal Commission’s recommendations, indicating what action they will take in response to them and will report on their implementation of relevant recommendations annually in December, along with all Governments,” Mr Turnbull said.
“Where institutions decide not to accept the Royal Commission’s recommendations they should state so and why.”
He said a progress report on how the recommendations were being implementing would be released in December each year for the next five years with a comprehensive review after 10 years.
