On 14 November 2016 the Royal Commission announced a series of public hearings to be held in Sydney to inquire into the current policies and procedures relating to child protection and child safety of various institutions.
 
Case Study 51 inquiring into the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments will commence on 6 March 2017. 

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The response of the Commonwealth government to the recommendations of the Child Protection Panel in its report dated 11 May 2016, Making Children Safer – the wellbeing and protection of children in immigration detention and regional processing centres.

2. The steps taken by the Department of Defence in response to commitments made during the public hearing of Case Study 40 in relation to the current systems, policies and procedures of the Australian Defence Force to prevent, raise and respond to concerns and complaints about child sexual abuse

3. The responses of the States and Territories to the Commonwealth Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, announced on 4 November 2016.

4. The recommendations concerning civil litigation made in the Royal Commission’s Redress and Civil Litigation report.

5. The recommendations contained in the Royal Commission’s Working with Children Checks report.

6. Nationally consistent data collection in relation to child sexual abuse in out-of-home care.

7. Reportable conduct schemes and mandatory reporting requirements.

8. Nationally consistent approaches to child safe standards.

Read further information about the public hearing.