People sexually abused as children in more than 4000 Australian institutions have waited too long for an effective response to their suffering, the chair of a royal commission says.
Justice Peter McClellan says governments and institutions must focus on providing effective redress for victims and ensuring no child is again sexually abused in an institution.
The child abuse royal commission is holding its 57th and last public hearing this week - focusing on the "why" question - as it enters the final stage of the five-year, $500 million inquiry.
The commission has held private sessions with more than 6500 survivors and will hear from another 2000 people up until the time it hands over its final report in December.
Justice McClellan said the final report will include comprehensive recommendations designed to better protect children in the future.
"After this year the community's resources, both government and institutional, should be focused on providing effective redress and implementing regulatory and other changes designed to ensure that so far as possible no child is abused in an institutional context in the future.
"Survivors have waited too long for an effective response to their suffering and the future protection of Australian children must be given the highest priority."
Children have been allegedly sexually abused in more than 4000 institutions, information before the royal commission shows.
"It is remarkable that failures have occurred in so many institutions," Justice McClellan said on Monday.
"It is now apparent that many of the characteristics of failure within institutions are common, although there are sometimes significant individual characteristics."
Senior counsel assisting the commission Gail Furness SC said the majority of perpetrators were adult men.
Clergy members made up a third of the adult perpetrators reported during private sessions with the commission, teachers 21 per cent and residential care workers 13 per cent.
Ms Furness said the effects of child sexual abuse can be devastating.
"For some, the impact of the abuse and the institution's response to it last for their whole lives," she said.
The impacts may be experienced as a cascade of effects over a lifetime, Ms Furness said.
The ripple effects impact the whole community and multiple generations can be affected, she said.
