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	Action on Child Abuse By Linda Morris Sydney Morning Herald [Australia] April 16, 2007 http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/action-on-child-abuse/2007/04/15/1176575687707.html A national register of clergy and church workers has received the green light after the Anglican Church's highest legal tribunal ruled on laws to tackle sexual misconduct, including pedophilia. But when the single centralised register opens this year it is likely to exclude allegations against clergy involving moral indiscretions and affairs between consenting adults. And plans to establish a "white pages" of biographical information on Anglican clergy are also set to be abandoned. The church's parliament adopted plans for a database for screening and risk assessment in 2004, part of a strategy to prevent offenders escaping notice by moving from diocese to diocese. Church authorities want the ability to check whether lay people or clergy members have been the subject of complaints of sexual misconduct or child abuse before it employed them. Sydney Diocese had wanted the national laws to be approved by its local synod first and asserted that the national laws affected its "order and good government". In a judgement to be published today, the Appellate Tribunal has held that the laws passed by the church's parliament three years ago apply to each of the 23 dioceses.
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