Thank you for sharing this Zeb.
Also, thanks for what you have done in relation to the ARC in the past. Good to see you back posting again. :)
The first public roundtable will discuss criminal offence for failing to report child sexual abuse, including the issue of blind reporting, where the alleged victim’s name or identifying details are not given to police.
This part particularly should be watched closely by someone in the organization. Maybe Vincent Toole?
I'll just leave these quotes here as a reminder:
Spinks said he had been made aware of this in these hearings and the church would accept and comply with mandatory reporting, “regardless of our strongly held religious belief that individuals should have the right to decide what is done with that information”.He said when there were mandatory reporting requirements with some sort of uniformity across the country “we will happily and willingly comply”.McClellan pointed out that uniform laws were not yet in place and they would differ from state to state but they would impose “a criminal sanction on a person who knows [about an abuse crime] and does not report”.Spinks said he understood that.McClellan said the church needed to have a very good look maybe with the help of the church’s lawyers at what the law provides.
Vincent Toole, head of the church's Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, told the commission he would seek independent legal advice about the church's obligations to report child sex abuse to the authorities.Justice McClellan asked Mr Toole if he understood there was a general obligation for every citizen to report crimes to the authorities."Coming to this commission has been a wake-up call for me, I can assure you," Mr Toole said."Immediately [when] this particular hearing is over, we're going to instruct senior independent counsel and ask them to give us clear legal advice what the position is throughout Australia . . . any obligations that arise in relation to those laws we will certainly comply with."