(AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation - ABC [Sydney, Australia]
February 23, 2026
By Keane Bourke
In short:
The WA government is under pressure to broaden the scope of proposed institutional child sex abuse laws so they do not just apply to religious institutions.
Governments around the country moved to update their laws following a “retrograde” High Court decision which made it harder for some victims to seek compensation.
What’s next?
But the WA Attorney-General says the government won’t be amending the bill, leading to a stalemate.
Efforts to close a legal loophole which allows some organisations to escape paying compensation for institutional child sexual abuse have been delayed after upper house MPs could not agree on how far the law should reach.
The debate traces back to 2024, when the High Court of Australia ruled the Catholic Church was not liable for a priest sexually abusing a five-year-old boy because the priest was not considered an employee of the church.
It left state and territory governments scrambling to close the loophole.
The WA government is attempting to pass a law which would confirm priests and other “religious practitioners” are indeed employees of religious organisations, making the organisations once again liable to pay compensation to victims of child sexual abuse.
But opposition and crossbench MPs want the reforms to go further — as they have in the ACT and Victoria — to make any organisation potentially liable for the actions of both employees and anyone “akin to an employee” who is found to have sexually abused a child.
The ABC understands a majority of upper house members supported that position and had been prepared to vote in favour of amendments to bring WA in line with other jurisdictions.
But those changes would need to then be passed by parliament’s lower house in order to become law — and the Attorney-General threatened to leave the bill stranded in limbo if the Legislative Council passed those changes.
“We will not be allowing or supporting amendments to the bill,” Tony Buti told the ABC.
“We will only support the current version of the bill which has legal clarity.”
In a bid to resolve the standoff, on Tuesday afternoon opposition and crossbench MPs won a vote to send the bill to a committee for further consideration.
The government did not support the motion, saying it would only delay efforts to provide survivors of abuse with a pathway to redress.
‘Victims shouldn’t be treated differently’
WA’s Shadow Attorney-General Nick Goiran put forward the amendments to expand WA’s laws in the same way as other jurisdictions.
“Why should a victim of child sexual abuse in Western Australia be left in a lesser position than victims in other states when abuse by a person who is effectively doing the work of an employee?” he said.
“The government’s fix draws an artificial line between different institutions. It means the law treats victims differently depending on where the abuse occurred.
“Victims shouldn’t be treated differently just because the abuse happened in a religious organisation rather than a secular one.”
While Dr Buti said the government was working to “explore other possible legal reform to assist victims of child sexual abuse”, he argued Mr Goiran’s amendments would only create confusion.
“What does ‘akin to an employee relationship’ mean? He does not actually define what that means in his amendments,” the Attorney-General said.
“It would leave it up to the courts then to decide on individual cases, which will only create further headaches and uncertainty for victims of child sexual abuse.”
Wide support for broadening law
The amendments are due to be debated in parliament today, and it is understood they could have the numbers to pass, with wide support for a broadening of the law.
However, it’s understood discussions are continuing as to whether further amendments are needed, or if the bill should be probed by a committee.
“There’s no more egregious crime than child sexual abuse and it’s absolutely critical that we get this legislative reform right,” Greens spokesperson for children, Jess Beckerling, said.
“Unfortunately, the way that the bill is currently drafted, there’s only a small portion of survivors who will be able to get justice through the courts and this has to be fixed.
“We just need to make sure that the legislation that is before us is fit for purpose and that it’s looking after the full cohort of survivors who have been impacted by the High Court decision.”
Dr Buti said the government would not support a Greens amendment to make organisations liable for any volunteers found to have sexually abused a child.
It would also reject any effort to refer the bill to a committee for further investigation, saying it would only delay justice for survivors.
Peak body backs change
The state’s Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing said it was important any reforms reflected findings from the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, and that Victoria and the ACT’s laws provided “model examples”.
But CEO Alison Evans stopped short of endorsing the opposition’s amendments, saying another recent High Court case had changed the landscape again.
“We support a detailed consideration of this bill through a short committee inquiry to ensure the best possible access to justice for victim-survivors of child sexual abuse,” she said.
The Australian Lawyers Alliance, which said many of its members represent victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, called on MPs to work together to “restore access to justice”.
“It is traumatic for victim-survivors to find that technical details block their ability to hold an institution to account for their abuse,” WA President Eleanor Scarff said.
“We must have legislation in place to ensure that the law services the people it is meant to protect.”
Counselling and support services
- 1800 Respect, National counselling helpline: 1800 737 732
- Bravehearts, counselling and support for survivors of child sexual abuse: 1800 272 831
- Lifeline, 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention: 13 11 14
- Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800
- Headspace on 1800 650 890 (children and young people)
- ReachOut at au.reachout.com (children and young people)
Find support services in your state or territory.