16/09/2025

A significant legal barrier faced by victims of institutional child sexual abuse is one step closer to being removed, after the committee inquiring into the Civil Law (Wrongs) (Organisational Child Abuse Liability) Amendment Bill 2025 today released its report and has recommended that the ACT Legislative Assembly pass the Bill.

“We welcome this report and urge the Legislative Assembly to accept this recommendation and pass the Bill,” said Hassan Ehsan, ACT President, Australian Lawyers Alliance. “If passed by the Assembly, this Bill will have a real and immediate impact for the many victim survivors of childhood abuse who have been blocked from holding institutions to account following last year’s High Court decision in Bird v DP.”

In Bird v DP, the High Court decided that the Catholic Church cannot be held vicariously liable for the sexual abuse of a child committed by a priest because the Court held that the priest was not an employee of the Diocese in Ballarat, Victoria. The High Court chose to overturn the decisions of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Victorian Court of Appeal.

"The High Court’s decision created another hurdle that victims have to overcome because they were abused by someone who, despite having many of the responsibilities of an employee, was not technically an employee,” said Hassan. “Without this change to the law, institutions that have had children abused in their care can avoid responsibility for the actions of those they effectively employed.

“As a lawyer I have spent countless hours listening to the lived experiences of victim survivors. Many of them never intended to take legal action. What they were seeking was simply for the institution that failed them to accept responsibility and for it to be held to account.

“The trauma of the original abuse is compounded by the trauma of a system that allows technicalities to override accountability.”

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) supports the Bill and urges the ACT legislative to pass it. The ALA is a not for profit member association of legal professionals many of who represent victim survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.