Baillieu backs a register for rabbis
FORMER Victorian premier Ted Baillieu is backing a proposal that would require all religious leaders to register as a minister of religion with the government and agree to keep a code of conduct.
FORMER Victorian premier Ted Baillieu is backing a proposal that would require all religious leaders to register as a minister of religion with the government and agree to keep a code of conduct.
The proposal, which has been put forward by a victim of child sexual abuse, would also include an independent dispute process that would allow the government to deregister anyone that is unfit to be a religious leader.
If institutions, such as schools, employ people that are not registered or have been dereregistered for breaking the code of conduct they could lose government funding.
“This should be a national program,” Baillieu told The AJN this week. “Some financial support from the government should be conditional on the compliance with the code of conduct by clergy of the institution.”
If the proposals are implemented, it would mean that if a rabbi at a school breaks the code of conduct and is deregistered, the school would be forced to stop him teaching or face losing government funding.
The victim who put forward the proposal said: “The national register is not designed to determine matters of religious observance or practice.
“Rather, it is a means for the community to have confidence, that those individuals who hold the title as minister of religion, are individuals of appropriate standing.”
JOSHUA LEVI
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