Mandatory reports for priests

AUSTRALIA
The Age

Farrah Tomazin
The Sunday Age’s state political editor.

PRIESTS who suspect a child is being sexually abused will have to report their concerns to police under a planned crackdown by the state government.

In an interview with Fairfax Media to mark two years in office, Premier Ted Baillieu foreshadowed changing the Crimes Act to compel priests and other religious workers to report suspicions of abuse within their organisations.

This would represent a shift in Victoria’s mandatory reporting regime, which currently exempts religious officials, and could involve clerics being prosecuted for failing to report.

But Mr Baillieu says he is yet to be convinced about the need for priests to disclose what is said in the confessional – an issue that is being considered by a parliamentary committee investigating sex abuse within the church and other institutions.

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