AUSTRALIA
news.com.au
MARCH 21, 2017
By Rebekah Ison
Australian Associated Press
A persistent culture of independence within Anglican dioceses is delaying a long-awaited misconduct regime that would deal with allegations of child sexual abuse, a royal commission has heard.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse on Tuesday heard there still isn’t a consistent national approach to professional standards 13 years after the church’s General Synod enacted a model ordinance on the issue in 2004.
Data released at the start of the hearing revealed 82 people who made complaints to the church were first abused as children between 2000 and 2015.
Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald on Tuesday said it was “almost inexplicable” to outsiders that the church had not put aside “relatively minor differences” to arrive at a common approach to professional standards.
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