Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: findings and what happened next
How institutions in Australia responded to child sexual abuse, across schools, care, religious, sporting and other settings.
- Country
- Australia
- Type
- royal commission
- Report published
- 15 December 2017
- Recommendations
- 409
Implementation, as of 27 October 2026Governments report annually on implementation, the National Redress Scheme is open to applications until 30 June 2027, and the implementation period runs to December 2027.
What the inquiry found
- The final report, in 17 volumes, examined historical residential institutions, out-of-home care, schools, sport and community groups, detention environments and religious institutions.1
- The volume on religious institutions carried the largest number of recommendations, 58.1
- The royal commission held 8,013 private sessions between May 2013 and November 2017.2
Key recommendations
- The final report made 189 new recommendations, for a total of 409 across it and three earlier reports on working with children checks, redress and civil litigation, and criminal justice.1,3
- The final report included 84 recommendations on redress.3
What happened next
- The Australian government published its response, stating it had not rejected any of the royal commission's recommendations.3
- Australian and New Zealand children's commissioners reported that 2 of the 24 child safe recommendations in Volume 6 were complete across all jurisdictions, and called for independent oversight of implementation.5
- The government established the National Redress Scheme, which offers a payment, counselling and a direct personal response. Applications close on 30 June 2027.3,4
Read the report: www.royalcommission.gov.au/child-abuse/final-report
Sources
- Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Final Report (15 December 2017)
- Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, Preface and executive summary (15 December 2017)
- Australian Government (via APO), Implementation of recommendations from the final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, annual progress report 2018 (December 2018)
- Australian Government, National Redress Scheme (27 October 2026)
- Australian and New Zealand Children's Commissioners and Guardians, Statement on progress of the implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse final report (11 October 2021)