Statutes Amendment (Mandatory Reporting) Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:19): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 and the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:19): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

At the outset, I would like to highlight the timeliness of this bill, given that we are in the middle of National Child Protection Week. In May this year, I announced the proposed bill, which I now introduce into the parliament. It seeks to tighten legislation which was passed in 2017 and which will come into effect next month in the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 with respect to mandatory reporting requirements as they pertain to priests.

Under the new laws set to take effect in October, priests who hear confessions about child abuse will have a mandatory obligation to report that matter to police. This change means that South Australia will become the first state in Australia to adopt a specific recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to remove the exemption from mandatory reporting for priests hearing confession. However, the act maintains a regulation allowing for the provision of a future exemption. It is imperative that this loophole is closed so that priests cannot be exempted.

Given the Catholic Church's response last week to the recommendations of the royal commission, and against a tsunami of community outrage and disgust, and the church's steadfast refusal to lift the veil of confession, it is crucial that the loophole provided by regulation be closed shut once and for all. We simply and morally cannot allow a possible exception for priests to avoid the obligation to report.

The Catholic Church in Adelaide has already refused to obey the law with respect to the confessional and seeks to place the church's canon law above all else, including the welfare of children. The power and might of the Catholic Church cannot be underestimated in seeking to lobby any government to be exempted through regulation, which would not require legislation. In addition, the bill also broadens the scope of the requirement for priests to report certain child sex offences, including in the course of confession, by specifying a prescribed child sex offence to include murder, rape, use of children in commercial sexual services, incest and child exploitation material and other related offences.

SA-Best has spoken several times now in this place about the sexual abuse of innocent children within our institutions and particularly within the Catholic Church. I do not need to remind my colleagues in this place that victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church represent 61.8 per cent, that is two-thirds, of all the victims who bravely came forward to share their unflinching, intensely personal and harrowing stories of abuse to the royal commission.

Damning figures from the royal commission, which heard from 2,489 survivors of child sexual abuse in Catholic institutions, reveal that 7 per cent of Catholic priests abused children between 1950 and 2010. In private sessions, the royal commission heard about child sexual abuse occurring in 964 different Catholic institutions. In one Catholic order—St John of God Brothers—40 per cent of clergy were alleged perpetrators, while one in five Marist and Christian Brothers were the subject of allegations.

It beggars belief and is nothing short of a national disgrace that, within the hallowed walls of the Catholic Church, there was never a whistleblower. There was never someone who had the courage and integrity to break ranks. Theirs was a shocking, appalling, unforgivable, unholy silence. Instead, perverse paedophile priests were protected, moved on to continue their demonic offending in other parishes because those who knew elevated the need to protect the church from the scandal over the need to protect children from harm.

Those who knew preferred to be complicit rather than have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for what they knew was so appallingly wrong. Those who knew preferred to look the other way so that paedophile priests could evade justice rather than face judgement. It was an era that spanned six decades when priests were revered, respected and never, ever questioned.

Of course, while the Catholic Church was the most pervasive in its sexual abuse of children, it most certainly was not alone. There is no doubt that many faiths have been affected by these scandals, and the royal commission has highlighted some of those. It also frequently heard about child sexual abuse in Anglican institutions: 594 survivors, or 14.7 per cent of survivors, who told the royal commission about abuse in religious institutions involving 244 different Anglican institutions; and Salvation Army institutions: 294 survivors, or 7.3 per cent of survivors, who told the royal commission about abuse in religious institutions involving 64 different Salvation Army institutions.

Collectively, these figures are hard to comprehend and they make my skin crawl. I cannot help but think how many more victims there may have been who are not willing or who are unable to speak out because of the complex reasons that this sort of trauma creates. As the royal commission highlighted in its report, the occurrence of child sexual abuse was most common in religious schools and residential institutions, and it is against this backdrop that we need to consider the impact these organisations have had in Australian society, especially given their pivotal role in educational and welfare services to large numbers of children over decades and the considerable government funding they have received for the provision of such services.

It is also important to acknowledge the similar impacts caused to the lives of a large number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including many who were forcibly removed from their families as children and placed in Christian missions. The royal commission had this to say about confession in its final report:

We are satisfied that the practice of the sacrament of reconciliation (confession) contributed to both the occurrence of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and to inadequate institutional responses to abuse.

We heard in case studies and private sessions that disclosures of child sexual abuse by perpetrators or victims during confession were not reported to civil authorities or otherwise acted on.

We heard that the sacrament is based on theology of sin and forgiveness, and that some Catholic Church leaders have viewed child sexual abuse as a sin to be dealt with through private absolution and penance rather than as a crime to be reported to police.

The sacrament of reconciliation enabled perpetrators to resolve their sense of guilt without fear of being reported.

Also, the sacrament created a situation where children were alone with a priest. In some cases we heard that children experienced sexual abuse by Catholic priests in confessionals.

The example of Father Michael McArdle is sickening and is testament to the need for reform. A notorious paedophile priest, McArdle admitted in confession to child abuse on more than 1,500 occasions—that is one thousand five hundred times—but the advice proffered by clergy was simply that McArdle had to pray more.

McArdle is a prime example for lifting the veil of secrecy of the confessional. McArdle's reign of absolute horror on young children highlights the crucial need for priests to be told by senior leaders that they should report crimes to authorities. McArdle made an affidavit in 2004 stating that he had confessed 1,500 times to molesting children to 30 different priests over a 25-year period: 30 different priests and not one chose to break ranks, not one chose courage over cowardice and not one chose to protect children over the church—not one.

It is an outrage of the most horrific kind, the likes of which this country has rarely seen, but every one of the priests McArdle confessed to would have known that he would continue his offending, which beggars the question: why was he given absolution? Every single time thereafter he clearly did not possess the necessary qualities to obtain absolution, or cared to for that matter, knowing the protection and security he was getting from his church. If his crimes had been reported so many children would have been saved from a lifetime of pain and suffering.

After each confession he said, 'It was like a magic wand had been waved over me.' If only a magic wand could be waved over the abuse and suffering he caused his victims, but we live in the real world where the safety of children must be the paramount consideration.

McArdle was gaoled for six years in 2004 after pleading guilty to indecently dealing with two girls and 14 boys aged eight to 13 between January 1965 and June 1987. He molested altar boys and girls in the confessional, in the presbytery, in the vestry and on church and school camps—places that churches hold most sacred. McArdle was forgiven 1,500 times in face-to-face confessions with his fellow priests and was told merely to go home and pray. But 10 Hail Marys and an Our Father just does not cut it. It is not good enough, and our children deserve better. Lawyer Mal Byrne said it best:

Paedophiles do not stop harming children because they have been to confession. What they are doing is unburdening themselves to a priest in the hope that they might feel a little bit better but then continue to commit their heinous crimes. There is a difference between confessing something just to get it off your chest and make yourself feel better, and confessing in real terms which means proper atonement for what you have done. In the case of paedophilia, this means being properly accountable by handing yourself into police, accepting the penalty that is coming to you and trying to reform. If you are not making that type of confession, why should you be protected?

The many case studies before the royal commission of children sexually abused when they attended confession make for appalling reading and are an illustration of the desecration of the sanctity of the confessional by clergy.

One case involved Luca, who was one of numerous siblings in Malta. His mother had mental health issues and his parents struggled to provide adequate care. Luca was 10 years old when he was placed in a Catholic orphanage and 13 when he and his brothers were placed on a boat bound for Australia as part of the Catholic migration scheme. He was sent to a boys' home run by the Catholic Christian Brothers.

When Luca was 15 years old, Brother Daniels fetched him from his dormitory, took him into another room and instructed him to kneel on the ground, where he was forced to hold out his arms in a crucifix position. Luca said:

I thought he was going to get me to pray or something. He made me kneel down and he put my pyjamas and he tied them around me head, around my eyes. And I felt somebody grabbing my two arms like that. And he lifted my shirt up and dropped my pants down and he masturbated on my back.

Shocked by what had happened, Luca went to confession, where he disclosed the abuse. Despite the seal of confession, the priest told Brother Superior about the incident who, would you believe, punished Luca, the young victim, rather than reporting it.

I cannot fathom a situation where a child goes to confession to disclose abuse where a priest would uphold the seal of confession rather than protecting that child. Many dioceses have already issued guidelines or directives along the lines of recommendation 16.48 of the royal commission that confessions for children take place in an open space within the clear line of sight of another adult.

It is time to elevate the wellbeing and safety of our children over those who seek to harm them and above the stonewalling of the Catholic Church, and indeed any other church. The church's refusal last week to abide by the royal commission recommendation is an insult to survivors. Reverend Rob MacPherson, a minister of the Unitarian Church in Adelaide, has steadfastly argued that canon law must not come before the need to protect children.

MacPherson was abused by a member of the clergy under the seal of confession, and suffered as his abuser continued to hold a position of influence in his parish. MacPherson was just a nine-year-old altar boy when a Catholic Church deacon violently raped him. He said:

Back then my whole world was the parish, its church and its school. Feeling that I was somehow complicit in the abuse—as many victims do—I sought absolution by confessing the 'sin' of having sex.

Tragically, my confession did remain sealed because the crime went unreported and the perpetrator remained in place. For years, I had to go about daily life in the parish under the knowing eye of my abuser.

MacPherson's life, following his abuse, spiralled out of control, but he was able to make his way back with the help of psychologists and therapists over many years. He argues:

Had mandatory reporting applied at the time and place of my abuse, I could have started on the path of healing earlier—and my abuser brought to justice.

The Catholic Church the world over, and other churches, have justifiably paid a heavy financial price for the culture of secrecy that allowed paedophilia to thrive, but that price is a pittance compared to the holocaust of childhood innocence taken and lives lost through the horrors of sexual abuse. The systematic sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church throughout Australia, Ireland, the US and across the globe is a Reformation-style scandal, and nothing short of a purge will suffice.

We argue for accountability and transparency in our public institutions and governments, yet the Catholic Church is one of the most secretive organisations on the planet. That culture of secrecy has enabled abuse to continue unabated. It is time for the laity to take back their church. An editorial in the National Catholic Reporter recently opined:

The next time you go to Mass and as you kneel in that silence that envelops the church just before liturgy begins, utter a prayer for this battered and wounded body we call the church. Pray for a renewal and inspiration from the Holy Spirit, and pray for a reform of our broken system. Then glance to your left and your right. Kneeling beside you are likely the strongest allies you have in rebuilding a church so badly in need of reform.

Former Melbourne Catholic priest Eugene Ahern, a close friend and supporter of Cardinal George Pell, has said that he has never heard a priest confessing to abuse. He is wrong. Ahern also thinks abuse is now a thing of the past, and again he is wrong. In the final report of the royal commission, the commissioner stated that the risk of sexual abuse of children remains across religious institutions that deal with children in schools, churches and recreational settings. They said that new cases continue to come forward. Ahern feels strongly that all Catholic priests should go to gaol rather than break the sacred seal of confession. Then so be it.

As a parent, nothing terrifies me more than the thought of anyone harming my child, and I know I am not alone. I am sure that everyone in this place who has a child, or a child in their lives who they love, feels exactly the same way. In considering this bill, I ask honourable members to put themselves in the shoes of the countless children who were sexually abused, or even the parents of those abuse victims, and imagine their pain, if just for a minute. If it is faith in God that guides you through life then you would want, for the safety and wellbeing of our children, to put their interests above all else. I commend the bill to members.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.