The Victorian Government’s response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission (Royal Commission) into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is dismal. In summary, the Victorian Government

• “accepted 128 recommendations where all elements of the recommendation were supported
• accepted in principle 165 recommendations where the Victorian Government supported the intent or merit of the recommendation but did not necessarily support the method for achieving the policy
• stated that Victoria would give further consideration to 24 recommendations where further analysis was required for the Victorian Government to determine its position”

Of 317 Royal Commission recommendations this translates to the Victorian Government not accepting 60% of them in full.

The Victorian government’s rejection of the all important 'how to' achieve 60% of desperately needed change and outcomes, reflects a lack of seriousness and sincerity about child sexual abuse. This was reinforced by their decision last year to no longer report on the status and outcomes of the Royal Commission recommendations directed to the Victorian government to implement. 

The Victorian government’s fifth and final Annual Report on its’ progress in implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission, reports on only 300 recommendations. Nowhere in this report does it mention those recommendations it decided not to action, and why, nor acknowledge how what has been implemented, deviates from what the Royal Commission recommended. 

The astounding fact is Victorians may never know exactly what the Victorian government's responses to the Royal Commission's recommendations changed and achieved.

Sexual Assault Services Victoria recently posted on social media:

"The Beaumaris Inquiry Report was handed to the Vic Government yesterday. We are watching the government's response in hope that it will result in comprehensive, systemic change for survivors of institutional, historic child sexual abuse. Many recommendations from the important 2021 Victorian Law Reform Commission report still haven't been implemented. We hope there is a clear response to the Beaumaris Inquiry Report."

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Our petition requesting the Federal and Victorian government to pilot the implementation of Recommediation 9.1 of the Royal Commission in full, has been met with a resounding silence for over two years now. Not only when it was tabled in Victorian Parliament, but by the Victorian government actively ignoring, and continuing to ignore, scores of email requests to meet it has received from us. 

We are clear eyed that the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry Report will be the latest of many past reports and recommendations, that provide the Victorian Government with opportunities to implement changes that would improve the lives of survivors of child sexual abuse, their families and communities.

The Beaumaris Board of Inquiry Report represents the start making a lot of noise to put pressure the Victorian Government to implement all of its recommendations in full. Not the end of ours, and many others' advocacy.

Including ensuring that unlike the Victorian Government's reporting of its responses to the Royal Commission recommendations, it provides an accessible online resource enabling any Victorian to easily have knowledge of what our Government has and hasn't done, in response to the Beaumaris Board of Inquiry recommendations.

We await a response from the Office of the Victorian Premier, for the date and time when the report will be tabled in Parliament, to enable people who wish to be in attendance when this happens, to plan to be able to do so.

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