Privileged power

In summer last year, Senator Mark Daly used parliamentary privilege to name an alleged child abuser. Here, he explains the choices with which he was faced

ONE in Four executive director Maeve Lewis said on Jul 27, 2011: “Senator Daly was placed in an impossible position. He was contacted as a public representative by people who gave him plausible and compelling information that they had been abused by this person and that they had exhausted all possible legal avenues.

“Senator Daly had two choices: To do nothing and hope that another child would not be sexually abused or to act in order to protect children. I do not envy him this moral quandary. Ultimately, he decided to act. We are all well aware of the horrendous consequences of secrecy and silence, therefore, in this particular instance, One in Four supports his decision.”