Victorian Government Announces Legislation Extending Vicarious Liability

The Victorian Attorney General has announced legislation which will apply retrospectively and which will extend vicarious liability of institutions to volunteers and people in roles “akin to employment” in response to the High Court’s ruling in the matter of Bird v DP [2024] HCA 41 which held that vicarious liability did not extend to priests thereby allowing the Catholic Church yet again to escape institutional responsibility for abuses of children in its care.  

The ruling had implications however beyond the Catholic Church. In re-asserting the position that vicarious liability only applies in strict employment situations (a position which has not been followed in other common law countries including the UK), the High Court’s decision also let off the hook the Scouts, sporting organisations, the Department of Defence (because soldiers and other service men and women are arguably not employees because they serve at the prerogative of the Crown) and other organisations including State Government responsibility for foster carers and others deemed not to be “employees”.

Importantly, the Government has announced that those who settled their claims at a disadvantage between the period that the High Court handed down its decision and the passage of the legislation will be able to apply to the Court to have their prior deed set aside.

The Victorian Government is yet again to be commended for being a world leader in reforms in the child abuse space and the Catholic Church is to be condemned yet again for seeking to rely on technical legal defences to avoid liability for child abuse in circumstances which are morally repugnant and reveal the hypocrisy of the Church.