Vicarious Liability for Organisations Responsible for Child Abuse
Civil Law (Wrongs - Organisational Child Abuse Liability) Amendment Bill 2025
Private Member's BillAssembly
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
Organisations are legally responsible for child abuse committed by an employee; this applies if the employee used their role to abuse the child.
The term employee includes volunteers, contractors, office holders, and religious leaders.
An organisation is responsible for a child if it exercises care, supervision, or authority over them; this includes organisations that delegate those duties to another group.
Courts must consider if an employee had power, control, or intimacy with a child when deciding if the role enabled the abuse.
The new liability rules apply to legal proceedings that started but have not yet been decided.
The definition of abuse settlement agreements now includes older agreements made before these rules started.