A Canberra sex abuse survivor has teamed up with a professional standards expert employed by the Catholic Church to push for internal institutional abuse investigations in the ACT to be as open and transparent as they have been in NSW for more than a decade.
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Damian De Marco, who testified about abuse at Marist Brothers College in Canberra during last year's sex abuse Royal Commission hearings, said calls for a "reportable conduct scheme" for Canberra, had tentative bipartisan political support.
Under NSW's "reportable conduct scheme" investigations into all forms of abuse, ranging from predatory sexual behaviour by paedophiles to harassment and bullying, and inappropriate conduct, are reported to and overseen by the State Ombudsman.
Matt Casey, the professional standards officer with the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, said NSW's legislation was far superior to the ACT's existing mandatory reporting requirements because of the third party oversight.
Mr Casey, who said he briefed ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, opposition leader Jeremy Hanson and ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury on the NSW scheme in May, conducts investigations for the Catholic Church in both jurisdictions.
"The oversight requirement [by the NSW Ombudsman] works in our favour," he said. "Your findings have far more credibility [because of it].
"I can conduct the best investigation in the world in the ACT and people can still turn around and say 'but it is just you investigating yourselves'."
Mr Barr's directorate has talked to the ACT and NSW Ombudsmen, the Young People's Commissioner, the Public Advocate and other bodies. The Chief Minister said the next step would be a discussion paper and public consultation.
"A date for it [the discussion paper's release] has not yet been determined. Measures that will prevent future instances of child abuse merit support from all parties," he said.
Mr Rattenbury agreed, saying: "The development of a professional structure to oversee child sex abuse investigations by private organisations [is desirable].
"A key theme [in the cases discussed when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse] was the failure of these internal [investigative] processes."
Mr Rattenbury praised Mr De Marco, Canberra's 2015 "local hero", for a "solution focused" approach to the issue he had helped to expose.
Mr Hanson said he had told Mr Casey and Mr De Marco he would be "open to such a scheme".
"The proposal for a system of mandatory reporting along the lines of the NSW system has merit," he said. "The Opposition [will] wait and see what is being proposed and seek to work co-operatively with all parties."
Mr Casey said the NSW Ombudsman was much more than a rubber stamp.
"We have to give the Ombudsman's office everything related to the investigation; all of the evidence right down to any notes we took, along with our findings," he said.
"If, after reviewing this, they feel more needs to be done they can and do say so."
Mr De Marco said it was probable the Royal Commission would recommend the national adoption of something like the NSW Reportable Conduct Scheme.
"But it may be two or three years before they hand down their recommendations," he said. "Why wait when you can act now?"
He said the adoption of reportable conduct legislation in Canberra would serve as a lasting legacy of the work done by the Royal Commission during its visit to the city in 2014.
