‘We owe it to those victims’: Priests to face JAIL if they fail to report child sex abuse admissions they hear in confession under new laws flagged a day after George Pell loses his appeal
- Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk moves to ban the confessional seal
- Priests will be forced to report child sex admissions to police or child welfare
- Her parliamentary announced followed Cardinal George Pell losing his appeal
- Victoria flagged new laws last week to make religious leaders report paedophilia
Priests could soon face jail for failing to report child sex abuse admissions they hear in the confession box.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was raised a Catholic, promised justice for child sexual abuse survivors a day after Cardinal George Pell lost his appeal against paedophilia convictions.
‘We owe it to those victims and we owe it to our communities,’ she told the Queensland Parliament on Thursday morning.
Priests could soon face jail for failing to report child sex abuse admissions they hear in the confession box (pictured is a stock image of a Catholic confessional)
Priests and faith leaders of all religions will soon have the same requirements as anyone else who worked with children in Queensland.
‘Teachers, doctors, nurses, child care workers and school principals have no choice but to report to authorities crimes against children,’ Ms Palaszczuk said.
‘The same should apply to religious organisations.
‘I know that there are strongly and sincerely-held views that some things are sacred.’
Queensland’s move to ban priests from keeping child sex confessions a secret from police or child welfare authorities comes a week after Victoria’s Labor government introduced similar legislation, known as the Children Legislation Amendment Bill 2019.
Ms Palaszczuk’s proposed law is also in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which in 2017 recommended religious groups no longer be exempted from reporting paedophilia confessions.
‘I absolutely respect people have the right to their religion but not at the risk of a child’s safety,’ she said.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was raised a Catholic, promised justice for child sexual abuse survivors a day after Cardinal George Pell lost his appeal against paedophilia convictions
‘It will be an offence to not report or not protect the victim of a child abuser, religious confession or not.’
Her speech to the Queensland Legislative Assembly was made a day after Victoria’s Court of Appeal, in a two-to-one verdict of judges, dismissed Cardinal Pell’s appeal against his convictions for sexually abusing two choirboys in the sacristy after a Melbourne Sunday mass in 1996 in 1997.
At the time, he was a new archbishop of Melbourne.
He later become the Catholic archbishop of Sydney and one of the most senior Vatican officials in Rome.
The 78-year-old cardinal has maintained his innocence and flagged a High Court challenge as he continues to serve his six-year jail term with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.
A jury found him guilty in December 2018.
Her speech to the Queensland Legislative Assembly was made a day after Victoria’s Court of Appeal, in a two-to-one verdict of judges, dismissed Cardinal Pell’s appeal against his convictions for sexually abusing two choirboys in the sacristy after a Melbourne Sunday mass in 1996 in 1997