The sad fact is that this enquiry is doomed before it even starts. The overwhelming majority of child sex abuse does not occur in the institutions as listed in the terms of reference. It happens in the home or in the neighborhood by people known to the victim. All those victims of child sex abuse are likely reflecting on why they are being silenced again. Julia Gillard is right in that this enquiry will open up a lot of wounds and cause a lot of pain but, thanks to her limitations, most of it won't be dealt with. If every person who was guilty of child sex abuse was sent to one month in gaol the economy would grind to a halt (and thousands of jails would be required). I have said it before and I will say it again. What is needed is a South African style Truth and Reconciliation enquiry. Let everybody admit to being perpetrator or victim and move on. What is happening instead is victims are tormenting and blackmailing their now elderly perpetrators for offenses that happened thirty, forty, fifty and sixty years ago.

I have one question which I think is very pertinent.
Are the Commissioners intersted in the nuts and bolts of sexual abuse? Or are the four men and two women just intersted in nailing someone and then hoping the problem will go away?
I remember many years ago a report on Victorian laws on sexual abuse announcing the inclusion of the word "penetration" into the laws. That's progress.
The Bible does not hold back from dealing with different types of sexual abuse. But things have changed. Social disruption of two world wars, discovery of the pill, Viagra, womens"lib", etc.
Many social changes are important eg pehaps 20% of young men have little hope of finding a satisfactory female relationship, due to womens' increasing number of alteratives to poorly prepared men. Not surprisingly chlidren can become a target for their testosterone imperative.
But most importantly is the sheer variety of sexual expression in people. This is only now becming evident due to scientific discovery of the role of mind and body hormones, mind and body nerve connections and enviormental factors.
Sexual inadequatecy is not all in the mind as they used to say.
Naomi Wolf's new book "Vagina" covers new infomation very well I think. Many documents used to have O&OE at the bottom. Will the RC reports also have O&OE at the bottom? Meaning Orgasisms and Erections Excepted.