...."The Ellis decision stands for nothing more than the commonsense proposition that you cannot be liable for wrongdoing of others unless you authorised, or are directly or indirectly responsible for supervising, their conduct,” he said, referring to the ruling on 2004 legal action taken against the church by abused altar boy John Ellis...."Unless the parliament intends to discriminate against the Catholic community and single it out for special treatment, proposals for legislative reform would effectively have to make all incorporated and unincorporated entities liable for the criminal conduct of their employees or members"....
....In that testimony, Cardinal Pell admitted cover-ups of abuse committed by priests had occurred within the Australian Catholic Church and said he was “fully apologetic and absolutely sorry”. But he rejected the push for increased compensation, saying the church would pay only what was required to meet “the law of the land”.
In Victoria, at least, it seems like it is all about getting at the Catholic Church. There are still many strongholds of Catholicism in Victoria. Being a particularly left leaning state over the last few elections Labor is over reaching again in an attempt undermine the RCC.
Why Victoria feels the need to have it’s own inquiry when the Feds will hold theirs later in the year is obvious when you see the the Fed inquiry will focus on child abuse as a whole not particularly Catholics.
BTW a political hack I know mentioned to me awhile back that the Labor feds did want to hone in on the RCC but the roar from the Catholics within their ranks was so loud it threatened to split the party and give government over to the Libs.
Mel