Anglican diocese seeks to sell property to pay child sex abuse claims

Australia Broadcast Center

18-05-2025

The Anglican Diocese of North Queensland is on the brink of financial collapse as it struggles to pay millions of dollars in compensation to victims of child sexual abuse.
Bishop Keith Joseph has revealed the diocese, which covers more than a third of Queensland, needs to find about $8 million to pay its victims.
The diocese is now preparing a Supreme Court application to formally restructure so it can sell assets to pay the compensation.
"There's grief for what's been done. There's sadness for what might be lost," Bishop Joseph said.
"But there's also determination to do the right thing."
Bishop Joseph said the diocese was under "tremendous pressure" to meet its moral and financial obligations under the National Redress Scheme (NRS).
The scheme was created in 2018, a year after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse handed down its final report.
Bishop Joseph declined to reveal how many claims the north Queensland diocese faced.
But he said the church had a moral and legal obligation to meet its commitments to survivors and that meant making difficult choices.
"This is about integrity. If we say we believe in justice, we have to act like it," Bishop Joseph said.
The Anglican Diocese of North Queensland has 50 parishes across 75 congregations stretching from central Queensland to the Torres Strait in the north and Mount Isa in the west, including in the major regional cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay.
The Townsville-based diocese has already sold its bishop's residence and diocesan office.
Bishop Joseph said no active church buildings would be sold without proper consultation.
"It's not just a matter of flogging everything off," he said.
"We want to keep the churches where there's a living congregation."
Schools, aged care and Anglicare services are separately incorporated and will not be impacted by the proposed restructuring.
The chief executive of child protection advocacy group Bravehearts, Alison Geale, said the compensation was necessary to hold the diocese accountable for the wrongs of the past.
"It recognises the serious impact of abuse on victims and their families," Ms Geale said.
"Providing compensation is at a minimum a validation and can facilitate closure for the victim-survivors and the church."
Complaints of child sexual abuse were reported in 22 of the 23 Anglican dioceses across Australia, the royal commission revealed.
The abuse claims against the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland stretch back to the 1950s, with most cases occurring in the 1960s to 1980s.
Bishop Joseph said none of the claims were from the past 25 years.
"There were some truly evil individuals in the past," he said.
"We want to acknowledge the harm done while upholding our moral and legal responsibilities."
Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia Archbishop Geoffrey Smith declined to comment on the North Queensland diocese's financial situation.
Reverend Jeffery Akaoi moved from the Pacific Islands to lead the Whitsunday Parish with his wife and young son in 2022.
He is now wondering if they will be forced to move back.
"We are not really certain where our future lies. We do not know how it will impact the missions we do," Reverend Akaoi said.
Since 2005, the diocese has funded South Pacific missions, assisting local churches and volunteering at nursing homes and youth centres.
Reverend Akaoi also travels monthly to Bowen and Ayr to hold services for Australian South Sea Islanders and workers on the Australian government's Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme.
"We come together and chat and listen to each other's challenges. It extends beyond the dioceses and connects us with Melanesia," he said.
Bishop Joseph said selling land and buildings was not a straightforward process.
"Our corporate structure doesn't allow for liquidation or administration. Without a restructure, we risk legal limbo," he said.
"In north Queensland, we can't just sell a parish property because we think it's the right thing to do.
"It's like railway gauges, every state's different."
Each Anglican diocese is separately operated and there is no central authority, unlike the Catholic Church of Australia.
The Anglican Diocese of North Queensland primarily relies on donations, op shop revenue and rental income to fund its operations.
"I think we're probably the first … [Anglican diocese] who certainly have acknowledged there's a significant [money] issue," he said.
"I know other regional dioceses are also in troubled financial waters, but they have different legal restraints and conditions. Trust law in NSW, for example, appears quite different."
A spokesperson for Anglican Church Southern Queensland (ACSQ) said it supported its north Queensland counterpart's decision to restructure.
"The Anglican Church of Australia has created a legal structure to ensure all payments arising from the National Redress Scheme will be paid if an Anglican diocese, school, or ministry organisation defaults on its payments because of financial stress," the spokesperson said.
Professor of Law at the University of Southern Queensland Reid Mortensen said the church was governed by remnants of an 1861 colonial Queensland law, long repealed but still shaping how some institutions operated.
"That legislation gave legal personality to churches like the Diocese of North Queensland," Professor Mortensen said.
"It means they can own property and sell it, but only in certain circumstances."
He said charitable trusts where money or property was given not to the church itself, but to support a specific religious purpose, were difficult to modify.
"That money doesn't belong to the diocese. It must be used for the purpose it was given," Professor Mortensen said.
"To redirect that money, the church needs permission from the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General."
Bishop Joseph said he had warned the national Anglican Church for years that redress would be financially impossible for small regional dioceses like his.
"There's no national pot of money … we're on our own," he said.
"We're not there yet, but without change we won't be able to meet these obligations in future."
Bishop Joseph said fulfilling the church's moral duty to pay child sexual abuse victims their compensation would be his legacy to the diocese.
"I feel that it's my obligation to try and do something," he said.
"We want to honour the victims and we need to go to the Supreme Court to get it resolved."