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Healing the pain

Posted on June 17, 2008, 7:07pm

The South Australian Parliament’s shared apology with churches to survivors of abuse in institutional care is a positive step towards redressing the harm that was inflicted.

Premier Mike Rann was right to commend the victims of abuse who came forward to tell their stories and he was equally right to describe the Mullighan Report’s findings as “nothing less than shocking”.

The fact widespread abuse flourished is a breach of community trust and a breach of care to the individuals involved.

The government’s moves to prevent such a travesty happening again are welcomed. These include expanded screening processes, specialist support, additional advocacy resources and the fast tracking of judicial procedures.

The opposition has criticised the pace of the government’s response.

However, the initial steps are positive and the systemic changes that need to be implemented take time to thoroughly investigate.

The opposition’s role should be to seek a bipartisan sustainable solution and hold the government to account if promises aren’t kept.

MICHAEL GOREY

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Comments

One Response to “Healing the pain”

  1. ex state ward on June 20th, 2008 9:04 pm 1

    Dear Editor,

    Thankyou for highlighting the Apology to ex State Wards in your paper and website.

    Sorry is not just a word. I can now hold my head high, no longer do I feel the need to whisper that I was a “foster child” whenever asked about my heritage.

    We are now ‘out there’, not to be ignored ever again!

    Again, thank you for the article.