ABC News Radio

SUBJECTS: Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse

E&OE………………

Marius Benson: Christopher Pyne, good morning.

Christopher Pyne: Good morning Marius.

Benson: Now should I say at the start, Christopher Pyne, you yourself are a Catholic which is only relevant in that you’re familiar with the Catholic position on confession, the importance attached to it in the Church.

Pyne: That is true yes.

Benson: And what’s your own view about the balance between the entitlements of Church protocols and the entitlements of national law?

Pyne: Well I think obviously the rules of the Church are the rules of the Church, they should be left to the Church to determine. But as a Member of Parliament it is very clear that my responsibility is to advise all citizens that if they are aware of breaches of the law particularly something as serious as the sexual abuse of children that abuse should be reported to the police.

Benson: Is that the unambiguous position of the law that if you know about a crime, that crime has been confessed to you, you are under a legal obligation to tell the authorities?

Pyne: Well as a Member of Parliament it would be wrong for me or any other Member of Parliament to advise citizens to withhold information that they have that would potentially stop the future abuse of minors. So whether there is a legal obligation or a moral obligation there is certainly an obligation on every citizen to protect children in our community. And if a priest or anyone else is aware of the sexual abuse of children that is going on I think there is an obligation on them to report that to the appropriate authorities to stop that from happening.

Benson: You are not swayed by the argument that this is privileged material? That it is like material between a doctor and a patient, it enjoys some level of privilege. Likewise between a client and a lawyer, some level of privilege. That this doesn’t apply here, that it would mean that the higher responsibility is not to reveal the information.

Pyne: Look I have a very high regard for the Church. I have been a practising Catholic all my life. Whether a good one or a bad one is always a moot point but the simple reality is that if a priest hears from another priest in the confessional that they are an abuser of children I think they have an obligation to report that to the authorities. I think it places them in a very difficult position if they are not to do so. To carry that burden around knowing that they are aware of a crime and that crime might be committed again and they didn’t act to stop it I think is an intolerable burden to place on the shoulders of the clergy.

Benson: And can I ask you what you thought of Cardinal Pell’s news conference yesterday where he offered the Church’s support for the Royal Commission into child abuse. But there were criticisms of him for appearing to be in the minds of some to be grudging in his support or even truculent to some of the questions about the Church’s role in child abuse.

Pyne: I think Cardinal Pell makes a very good point. And that is that the sexual abuse of children is not something that is exclusive to the institution of the Catholic Church. In fact, over the years many many stories have emerged from the Anglican Church, from the Salvation Army, from the Scientologists, from children in state care, foster care, children in detention centres over the years. And there is a tendency I think in the media to write much more extensively about the Catholic Church than any other institution. The Royal Commission is a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse of children in any kind of institutional care whether it not-for-profit, state or church. And I think that is the point that he is making. The Catholic Church shouldn’t be scape-goated. Far from it, the Catholic Church now has in place the proper protocols to deal with this kind of really evil unfortunate activity.

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