Vicarious liability law reform PASSED!

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Tuesday marked a win for victim-survivors of historical institutional child sexual abuse, as legislation was introduced to close a legal loophole arising from the High Court ruling in the case of Bird v. DP. This followed Rachel’s introduction of the Wrongs Amendment (Vicarious Liability) Bill 2025. Rachel continued to advocate for timely reform, welcoming the passage of this bill alongside victim-survivors, their friends, family and advocates.

Tuesday the 17th of February 2026
Victorian Legislative Council

Rachel spoke to the significance of legislative reform to remove a barrier to justice for victim-survivors of historical child sexual abuse.

Rachel Payne (South-Eastern Metropolitan):

I rise to speak on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Vicarious Liability for Child Abuse) Bill 2025 on behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria. I rise to speak on this issue for a range of reasons. It is personal to me. Like a lot of us, I have many people near and dear to me who are survivors. I know the pain and deep suffering that abuse by trusted adults causes victim-survivors. It should not solely be on them to fight the battle for both recognition and compensation. They deserve nothing less than for those of us in positions of power to stand with them and shoulder some of that burden. I think it is quite comforting that every member of Parliament who has made a contribution today has reassured survivors that they are standing with them and that this legislation will pass because it is the right thing to do. I want to acknowledge everyone’s contribution today, because some things are just above politics. I appreciate everyone’s commitment to seeing the passage of this bill.

I say to survivors that I see you and I stand with you, and I am sorry that this fight has often been so lonely and so hard. I also have a number of constituents in the south-east who are victim-survivors of institutional abuse. As your local member I will always be a voice for you in Parliament. Legalise Cannabis Victoria is a party of law reform, but underneath that is a bedrock of social justice. We are a party of compassion, and we believe in doing what is right. To this end, early last year I stood in this place and I second read a private members bill, the Wrongs Amendment (Vicarious Liability) Bill 2025, to make certain organisations vicariously liable for the abuse of children by persons akin to employees of those organisations, to effectively close that absurd loophole. This was in response to the 2024 decision in the case of Bird v DP, where the High Court held that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat could not be held vicariously liable for known historical child sexual abuse because the perpetrator, Father Coffey, was not an employee. Because of the High Court’s reluctance to establish vicarious liability outside of the strict employee–employer relationship, this created a second class of victim-survivors who will struggle to access justice, including those abused by non-employees, like volunteers.

Common sense reform

The common-sense and just approach is as follows: where there is comparable authority, control and power given to a perpetrator because of their position in an organisation and that perpetrator takes advantage of that position to perpetrate abuse of a child, it should not matter if they have the title of employee. It is arbitrary and unjust that existing laws allow some but not other victim-survivors to have the opportunity to pursue relief through vicarious liability. The High Court itself said law reform in this area was the responsibility of the government and of us as a Parliament. With the bill before us today I am glad to see that the government has accepted the High Court’s invitation to reformulate the laws of vicarious liability and address the harsh outcomes from the Bird v DP case.

Victoria has never been afraid to lead the way when it comes to responding to institutional child abuse. Proudly, Victoria was the first jurisdiction in Australia to remove civil limitations and create a fault-based legal duty to prevent child abuse. While it took some time from when I introduced essentially the same bill last year, the government has thankfully now introduced legislation to right this wrong. This brings me to the Justice Legislation Amendment (Vicarious Liability for Child Abuse) Bill 2025. This bill specifies the circumstances in which an organisation will be considered vicariously liable for abuse of a child by an employee of the organisation and provides when an individual will be akin to an employee of a relevant organisation. I am glad to see that the government’s bill will also give courts the flexibility to respond to the circumstances of each case and will apply to all organisations that exercise care, supervision or authority over children, drawing no distinction between the kinds of organisations in which abuse may occur.

Ensure accountability by amending ‘integral’ to ‘ordinary’

While we are so pleased with the bill before us today – this is spiffing legislation – there are, however, opportunities for minor improvements and clarifications to improve its operation for victim-survivors. On that note, we will be moving an amendment to this bill, and I ask that the amendment now be circulated. Section 93C of this bill provides that, in determining whether an individual is akin to an employee, a court may consider whether the individual carries out activities as an integral part of the activities carried on by the institution. We heard from a range of stakeholders with concerns about the use of the word ‘integral’ in this bill. In fact, when drafting the private members bill last year, I received similar feedback and chose to adjust the language accordingly. That is why we are moving this amendment today to change the language from ‘integral’ to ‘ordinary activities’ in order to close any further loopholes. This change brings us in line with the laws passed in the ACT and ensures we do not create an unnecessarily high burden of proof. It should be enough that someone is part of the ordinary activities of an organisation; they do not need to be integral. We have also heard from stakeholders with a range of queries about how certain parts of the legislation are intended to operate, and we will be canvassing these in the committee of the whole stage.

I would like to take a moment now to thank the many stakeholders whose tireless advocacy helped secure the bill before us today. I will not have time to name everyone, but I especially want to thank Dr Judy Courtin from Courtin Legal, Susan Accary from the Victorian branch of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, National Survivors Foundation and Sexual Assault Services Victoria. Thank you for all the support and information you have provided to me.

Victim-survivors left in limbo while government delayed

While it is disappointing that the government did not support our bill last year to change these laws in essentially the same way, we are pleased to see that they have accounted for this delay, and it will be retrospective. This bill will enable a person to apply to the court to set aside a settlement or judgement that occurred between the 13 November 2024, which is the date of the Bird v DP decision, and the commencement of this bill before us today. This ensures that no victim-survivor with a claim impacted by Bird v DP is left materially worse off because of any delay.

That is not to say that all is well. While we waited on the government to make these changes, victim-survivors have been left in limbo. Cases were adjourned and settlements delayed in the hope that changes to the law would occur on time. A schoolboy at a religious boarding school, a youth volunteer at a railway organisation, an attendee at a church Sunday school and a youth member of the Guides association – all young people who were victims of child abuse at these organisations and were denied access to justice, simply because their perpetrator was not technically an employee, and impacted by Bird v DP. This delay had both practical impact and a huge mental health impact on the community.

Walking together on the road to justice

On that note, in supporting this bill I want to acknowledge the many thousands of victim-survivors across Victoria and Australia. I particularly want to thank every single survivor who has reached out to me, who has engaged with me and who has at times encouraged me as well, because your engagement and encouragement have got us to where we are today. I thank you for your commitment to the outcome we are seeing today. We hope this bill makes the all-too-difficult fight to access justice that little bit easier, and today and every day we stand with you on that road to justice.

I also want to thank the Attorney-General for her commitment and engagement, and I particularly want to thank the Attorney’s team, who have been an amazing group to deal with. I think that there is so much work that has happened behind the scenes here. It is important to acknowledge that everyone was committed and provided a lot of clarity along the way so that we could come to this positive outcome. On that note, though, we do hope that the passage of this bill will mean that the Attorney-General will continue their work at the Standing Council of Attorneys-General to encourage other jurisdictions to make similar changes. On behalf of Legalise Cannabis Victoria I commend this bill to the house.

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