As our last update noted, "the Inquiry will consider all information that it receives and determine how it is relevant to its terms of reference" means that the Board of Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse at Beaumaris Primary School and certain other government schools, cannot explore anything outside its narrow terms of reference.

We agree with Russell Jackson's latest article The case of paedophile William Landman shows why Daniel Andrews's inquiry won't 'go where it needs to go'

"Even a cursory glance at the terms of reference, which Premier Andrews misidentified as "very broad", spelled out Foley's limited remit with crystal clarity. Presently, her inquiry is solely an examination of abuse perpetrated by the Beaumaris Primary offenders — at that school and 17 other government schools they were shuffled through — and the contemporaneous institutional responses to that particular abuse.

Never mind the painful, often traumatising legal ordeals such survivors have faced in recent years when they've sued the Victorian Education Department. The inquiry won't tackle those present-day indignities.

And never mind that the Beaumaris abuse represents a small fraction of the degradations inflicted on blameless children by the incalculable number of paedophile teachers who infiltrated Victoria's state school system in the 20th century. As it stands, those will go unexamined too.

On Thursday, Premier Andrews was asked about that bigger picture.

"They [the inquiry] can go where the evidence takes them," he repeated. "That's the way it was structured. But again, I just want to make this point, it was not for us to be naming a whole bunch of other schools. There needs to be evidence led, there needs to be a process."

Unfortunately for the premier and his education department, a mountain of evidence has already shown that child sexual abuse was rife in that "whole bunch of other schools". One law firm alone, Arnold Thomas Becker, says it is currently pursuing claims related to 70 Victorian government schools." 

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Bravo Russell Jackson. Everyone who survived child sexual abuse, the loved ones of those who didn't, and the brave survivors who advocate for change, all deserve attention and respect from the Victorian government. A message the Board of Inquiry will no doubt hear too.

A reminder to everyone who believe they are eligible to attend a private session, and / or have a submission included in the Board of Inquiry, submissions close on 12 October 2023. The three Beaumaris Primary offenders whom are the focus of the Board of Inquiry, were named by Stuart Grimley in Parliament last year.

We stand with all survivors, families and communities.