Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness.

His announcement came after Police Commissioner Mr. Lennett (Lennie) Edwards said there would be no charges stemming from a long investigation into child abuse allegations at Nambour Day Nursery in Paget.

"Before announcing a broad inquiry, we felt it important to allow the Police inquiry to conclude first,'' Mr. Edness told The Royal Gazette . "One might have hampered the other.'' The Minister said he was now recommending Government create a task force "to look into this whole area of child abuse, both physical and sexual,'' whether it occurred in private homes or institutions.

Bermuda's Coalition for the Protection of Children has called for a Commission of Inquiry into Nambour in particular, and child abuse generally.

Mr. Edness said the task force could hear from anyone to help it make recommendations, but "it is not set up to inquire into a specific charge or allegation. It's not a judicial inquiry.'' Child abuse appeared to be increasing, not only in Bermuda, but in North America and elsewhere, he said.

It was impossible to say whether it was happening more, or only being reported more. But, "we have to simply assume that it is proliferating,'' Mr. Edness said. "We have to assume that there is something in our society that is causing more child abuse to happen.'' The terms of reference were being finalised. Mr. Edness said he had a chairman in mind and an announcement would be made soon.

He wanted the task force to look into what caused child abuse, how it could be prevented, and whether education could help. It would also study "all of the laws as they pertain to children,'' and the ability of the public sector to respond when abuse occurs.

How the judiciary dealt with child abusers would also be studied. "This is intended to be a very in-depth and broad inquiry into this phenomenon to cause us to better understand what is happening, how to prevent it, and how to deal with it once it does happen in the community,'' Mr. Edness said.

Meanwhile, Progressive Labour Party campaign co-chairman Mr. Terry Lister said it was "a tragedy'' that the owners of Nambour were forced to close and sell the day nursery because of unsubstantiated allegations.

He blamed Mr. Edness for commenting on the case, "rather than sitting back as a Minister should and taking directions from his civil servants''.

But Mr. Edness said he was careful not to name any particular day nursery while the probes were under way. He charged that Mr. Lister was "trying to politicise this, instead of contributing to the solution''.

Because of the complexity of the subject and the broad nature of the inquiry, it might take six months for the task force to report, he said.

Mr. Edness said his department had "been in the forefront of dealing with child abuse for years,'' and received "a bum rap'' recently.

The Minister said his department has had "a long-term objective to better handle this,'' but recent publicity underlined the need for a task force.