Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations

The Committee received 578 written submission including public, name withheld, confidential, supplementary and additional submissions requested by the Committee following in camera hearings.  Of the 578 submissions, 413 were considered for publication.  Every submission has been worked through from an investigatory, policing, privacy and legal perspective to analyse the content and appropriately deal with the information it provides to the Inquiry. 

The Committee has completed its analysis of submissions for publication on its website.  Of the 413 submissions processed, 352 were approved for publication, subject to relevant redactions.  Some of those submissions have been extensively redacted as they contain multiple adverse reflections, inappropriate content, information that may impede on current police investigations or that leads to the identification of minors. 

Following the completion of the Inquiry and the tabling of the Report on 13 November 2013, the Committee continued to review and process submissions, mindful that there was no scope for any further rights of reply or to change the classification of submissions.

The Committee decided not to publish some submissions for the following reasons:

• 29 cases are currently under investigation by Victoria Police or are pending matters before the Victorian courts
• the submission contains specific allegations or information relating to a current investigation or potential future investigation
• the submission was made by someone other than the victim, and the victim has not consented to the information being made public
• the submission is confidential
• the content is outside the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference
• the submission is difficult to understand following extensive redactions due to multiple adverse reflections or inappropriate content in the submission
• the submission contains personal or health information of a victim, secondary victim or significant others (third parties), and it is not in the public interest for that information to be publicly available
• the information in the submission was made by a minor or leads to the identification of a minor (consistent with the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005).