Vic set to abolish abuse compo loophole

AUSTRALIA
SBS News via AAP

March 6, 2018

The Victorian government wants to abolish a legal loophole which has been used by organisations such as churches to avoid being sued by abuse survivors.

Victoria will abolish the so-called Ellis defence, an “unfair legal loophole” which has prevented child sexual abuse survivors from suing organisations like the Catholic Church.

Under proposed laws introduced to parliament on Tuesday, unincorporated associations such as churches, would have to nominate an entity able to pay damages.

“This deals with what is something that I think has re-traumatised victims and survivors for too long, something that has made a terrible set of circumstances even harder,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

For too long “there’s been this veil, this fiction, that in the case of, say, the Catholic Church” there is nobody who can be sued, Mr Andrews said.

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