Justice for Victims [consultation paper]

The Greens are working towards law reform  to allow victims of sexual abuse to seek fair compensation from the Catholic Church.  We are seeking broad consultation with the community, churches and other stakeholders in relation to this proposed reform.

We have produced a comprehensive consultation paper, which can be downloaded here.

Many victims of abuse, and their legal advisers and supporters, have approached us regarding the present difficulties victims face when they make a claim against the Church. The repeated issue being the so-called “Ellis Defence” which is the main barrier to fair compensation. The “Ellis Defence” refers to the case of Trustees of the Roman Catholic Church V Ellis & Anor [2007] NSWCA 117.

In Ellis the Court held that the Church’s various property trusts (which hold the vast bulk of the Church’s assets) are not liable to pay victims any damages for abuse by members of the clergy or other Church officials.  The Court also held that the Catholic Church is not a separate legal entity able to be sued in its own right and that it remains, remarkably, simply an unincorporated association with no distinct legal identity.

The legal reform proposed in this consultation paper is an amendment to the Roman Catholic Church Trust Property Act 1936 that will allow victims to litigate directly against the property trusts and, by doing so, to force the Church to meet these claims on their merits, rather than hide behind legal technicalities to defeat them.  Full details of the proposal are contained in the consultation paper.

Your views on the issues raised in the consultation paper would be greatly appreciated.  Responses can be submitted in a variety of ways:

• via our website, below
• via email to: kym.chapple@parliament.nsw.gov.au
• via snail mail to:
  David Shoebridge
  NSW Parliament
  Macquarie Street
  Sydney NSW 2000

Please note the closing date for submissions is 6 February 2012.

NOTE due to a number of requests we have extended the date that submissions will be accepted until Monday 20 February 2012.

For further work I have done on this issue:

• Read the adjournment speech delivered in NSW Parliament on September 14 2011
• Listen to an interview on the issue on the ABC AM program
• Download the comprehensive consultation paper

I look forward to your informed and valued response to this pressing issue.

David

SUBMIT YOUR RESPONSE TO THE CONSULTATION PAPER ONLINE