This result is what I would call " limited politics".

'My word', said Bill when the Puddin' was brought back. 'You have to be as smart as paint to keep this Puddin' in order. He's that artful, lawyers couldn't manage him.

Naturally, lawyers will be the big winners, when the magic pudding is recarved,
And the poor old pudding is dragged out again for another feast!

But further, since when does money compensate for child abuse. This concept is a major problem in itself.
Identify and punish the perpetrators, shouldn't that be the the end of the concept, right there!

Sure, it will remove some of the magic from the pudding, but lawyers will be paid handsomely to simply do a job; not take big slices from the magic pudding of compensation payments, rewarding greed!

And finally, in true Queensland style, they have got it badly wrong again!

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Dear Amanda,

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Thanks for the article. I had missed that. It is a step in the right direction and a victory for justice in my home state.

I am delighted that democracy is working at long last.

It really is refreshing.

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I commend the article Amanda and can only add. It ought to apply to all compensation or discriminatory practise, for which there ought not be a time related (statute of limitations) escape clause! Justice deferred is justice denied, as is justice denied, only more so!

That said, we need to treat all such cases purely on merit that doesn't create a precedent that simply acts to make fat, rich lawyers fatter and richer and deny fair, just and reasonable even handed, equitable treatment!

Thereby ensuring insurance companies and others, spend millions to avoid hundred thousand dollar settlements or less! [To avoid creating precedents!]

Better the time, money and effort was used to provide fair and reasonable settlements rather than be strung out for years or decades, to support patently parasitical "legal practise"!?

We have a two tier justice system in Australia, one for the rich and bugger all to none for the poor and downtrodden! Not too many lawyers in the latter list Amanda?
Alan B.

Dear Readers,

I wish to publicly acknowledge my esteemed colleague Amanda Gearing for her decades long painstaking and forensic investigative journalism in this most difficult area of child sex abuse by clergy.

She remains a vigilant and tireless champion for victims/survivors as well as for journalists and other advocates and I am but one of many who have been sustained by her courage and inspiration, to say nothing of her support and understanding when the weight of individual and collective horrors sometimes becomes overwhelming and debilitating.

There were earlier and darker days when on occasion, mainstream and even non-mainstream media just didn't want to know; a crushing thing for any journalist to confront and try to overcome - to not give up trying - all the while feeling a sense of betrayal by yourself - and of the victims/survivors and the great emotional, psychological and physical cost that comes with speaking out and even recounting your story.

Amanda's formidable reputation today has been forged in years of advocacy in journalism and personal representation and we owe her much for the changes in various laws and legislation, attitudes and fora for truth telling and speaking truth to power, including various inquiries and the Royal Commission.

She has have done much to dismantle the once impervious battlements of religious clergy and the automatic and deflective charade of victim blaming.

Amanda Gearing is a hero. I salute her.

Salute away! And I salute you for saluting her!

Sorry if I sound cynical but I am one of thousands for whom the statute of limitations has meant, nobody's interested? There's no profit in it!? And even fewer votes!

I spent more than half my formative yeas in foster homes and orphanages. And subjected to every known form of child abuse, including daily ritual greenhide leather floggings, followed by ice water baths, naked and shivering at the height of winter.
And having (toe/thumb)nails pulled out with pliers, while a couple of beefy nuns sat on me, to limit my ability to prevent it being done!

I lost count of the sheer number of schools this incorrigible rebel went to! Even so, managed to earn tertiary qualifications in three separate disciplines

While Amanda is your hero, for me, not even a spectator as I was kicked and bashed into a coma! And worse!

Doctors reports? Police reports? Just part of the non reported problem?

Left to heal on my own, I became something of a loner and although bent and bowed. Still not broken and more defiant, replete with white hot anger against perceived injustice and those who create it, deliberately or through (I'm al right Jack) calloused indifference, the latter being the greatest evil!

Yes Amanda, we salute you and a fearless few alone, given the calloused indifference that saw a tiny band of civic warriors stand almost alone as this monstrosity called child care, spread it's raptor claws into every dark corner of society!

All while Pulpit pounding pomposity personified presided over the carnage and loss of innocence!

If I'm Hard, never beaten or never quit? It's because I had to be! If anybody wants me to elaborate, don't bother, I'm done!

And save the crocodile tears and counterfeit sympathy, it changes nothing!
Alan B.