Female Abuse Complaints Thrown Out
"The overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse victims in Western countries are female" - World Practitioners Report, 2013.
These Child Sexual Abuse Statistics further conclude the majority of offenders are also male. Neither facts are hardly surprising since, as we are well aware, the dominant sexual preference of Western countries is heterosexual.
However, the most recent Commission data fails to reflect these statistics, it suggests 78% of child sex abuse victims identified so far are male. The key word to note here is "identified", or more specifically: incidents that resulted in action (arrest/conviction/etc).
The obvious imbalance in these figures suggests Australian females are less likely to be believed, thus resulting in no action. It also demonstrates the Commission is primarily focused on the homosexual context of Child Sexual Abuse, rather than 'any sexual act between an adult and a minor' irrespective of gender.
Aussie Insider revisits the historical context of the commission's current focus and shares some startling revelations uncovered along the way.
Government Impunity
The terms of reference play a specific role in any Royal Commission. They are delivered by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in her Letters Patent (who, contrary to popular belief, does not necessarily play only a ceremonious role in Australia). All commission inquiries are restricted to the specific terms set out in the Letters Patent.
For example, the Letters Patent limited the Brisbane National Hotel Royal Commission in 1963 by not requiring the commission to consider the policing of child-prostitution, or to examine corruption in relation to members of the government or the judiciary. While the majority of Brisbane school children and parents knew exactly what went on behind the doors of the National Hotel, no impropriety was found.
Again, the NSW Moffitt Royal Commission in 1973 did not require the commission to consider these groups, nor was any impropriety found.
It wasn't until the independent Fitzgerald Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct in QLD, some 20 years later, that a high-level organised crime ring involving child sex trafficking by high profile members of the community was revealed. Although not limited by the terms of reference in previous probes, the inquiry still failed to expose the crime ring.
The Fitzgerald Inquiry did, however, open the floodgates as many more victims became encouraged to come forward and were given an opportunity to describe the crime ring in more detail.
The public responded by demanding the Pedophile Information Network political party be disbanded, forcing the crime ring further underground than ever before in history, ultimately causing the nature of the violence against children to escalate ten-fold and, as betrayal became the norm, total victim reports of child sexual abuse also decreased by half.
Female Exclusion Precedent
What followed the Fitzgerald Inquiry was a period notorious for "The Age" tapes, which resulted in High Court judge Lionel Murphy being charged and acquitted twice for perversion of justice, who then saw to it that the inquiry taking place at that time could not further investigate the judiciary.
Twenty years would pass by before Justice Murphy would ultimately be implicated in the pedophile network by numerous victims.
In 1995 Justice James Wood, whose implication in the pedophile network would also come out 20 years later, was appointed to the Royal Commission into NSW Police corruption.
Under public duress, the Wood Commission received Letters Patent widening the terms of reference to include investigating the activities of organised pedophile networks in NSW, however Wood found no such network.
Wood explained his own reasoning as, basically: a bunch of baseless claims made by hysterical women. And thus, the precedent was set for all subsequent inquires.
The Cover-Up Culture
Unfortunately for Wood, one of the primary procurers of child-victims in the network had already confessed and named numerous prominent people in high profile position as handlers, traffickers and abusers.
Labor politician Franca Arena, was threatened with suspension for using parliamentary privilege to name a retired judge and a former state MP as some of those accused and requiring investigation. Instead, Arena gave up pursuing it and made an apology.
In 2004 the Australian Crime Commission also refused to look into, yet more, victim complaints and witness statements. Like Arena, Speaker of the South Australian Parliament Peter Lewis used parliamentary privilege to name several prominent suspected pedophiles, suggesting they too should be investigated.
Lewis was also threatened with suspension and, a short time later, the homes and offices of his campaign team were raided by the federal police.
But unlike Franca Arena, Lewis resigned, making sure to note in his resignation speech:
"[victims/witnesses] were being 'bumped off' that is, murdered and viciously assaulted quicker than I or the people who were helping me could get them to write down their allegations".
In response, the Government took the extraordinary step of introducing legislation to the Lower House which would limit parliamentary privilege and prevent media outlets from naming any MP or public official allegedly involved in sexual misconduct, past or present.
It was further revealed in 2015 by NSW senator Bill Heffernan that Justice Woods was, in fact, protecting 28 suspected "prominent" pedophiles listed by the federal police over numerous commissions since 1995. Like many before him, Heffernan was heavily ridiculed and then forced to resign.
The current Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse still excludes members of the government and the judiciary and the media is still gagged.
Politicizing Homophobia
What many don't realise is the commissions role is to discover where the law has failed and to recommend law reforms specifically designed to prevent the same failures from happening again.
In this context, it can be said all previous commissions were somewhat successful since they all caused major law reforms. But that isn't what We The People are after, we want the ALL of the corruption rings dismantled and everyone responsible prosecuted, once and for all.
The commission can recommend this course of action however, the very last thing it cares for is what the people want. It is just as happy to follow the patterns and precedents of the past, if for no other reason than to politicize male to male sexual abuse.
Females and government corruption ruled out, what the Royal Commission has left us with is a nagging sense of homophobia, the very thing that would prevent marriage equality from ever gaining the popular vote.
But the law makers WILL get their reforms because, at the end of the day, the law counts - not the votes.