AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press
June 21, 2018
By Tom Rabe
New laws that could see people jailed for failing to report child sex abuse have passed NSW parliament but religious clergy remain exempt.
The bill passed the NSW upper house late on Wednesday night strengthening state laws surrounding child sex abuse – but Greens MP David Shoebridge said the legislation doesn’t go far enough.
The new laws provide an exemption for lawyers, health professionals and religious clergy, unless the attorney-general provides special permission to prosecute.
Mr Shoebridge moved an amendment in the Legislative Council to scrap exemptions for church figures but neither the coalition nor Labor supported it.
“When it comes to the confessional the coalition and Labor both put the interests of the church ahead of the safety of children,” Mr Shoebridge said in a statement after the bill was passed.
Despite upper house Nationals not voting for Mr Shoebridge’s amendment, their party voted last week to introduce such measures at its annual general conference in Cowra.
Police minister and former Nationals leader Troy Grant said he thought the amendment to expose priests to the laws could garner support from his colleagues.
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