AUSTRALIA: Pressure mounted yesterday on the Governor-General of Australia to resign amid new allegations he ignored child sex abuse complaints during his time as Archbishop of Brisbane.
As Australia lurched towards a constitutional crisis, there were fresh accusations that the Governor-General, Dr Peter Hollingworth, ignored a church body's concern over a canon accused of sex abuse.
Dr Hollingworth's handling of a series of complaints during his 11-year tenure as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane is being seen as either inept or designed to bury the claims and has prompted renewed calls for his resignation.
The allegation is the latest in a series and prompted the opposition Labour Party to reiterate calls for Dr Hollingworth's dismissal ahead of the Commonwealth summit which opens in Queensland on Saturday.
Dr Hollingworth arrived back in Canberra from an official visit to New Zealand yesterday, where Queen Elizabeth is on a state visit ahead of her arrival in Australia on Wednesday. He later issued a statement in defence of his actions.
An opinion poll published yesterday found two out of three Australian voters believed Dr Hollingworth should step down from office pending an investigation.
The poll in the Sun-Herald also found 53 per cent believed that failing this, the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, should petition Queen Elizabeth to dismiss him.
Earlier, the Nine Network's Sunday programme broadcast allegations that members of the Anglican Church had warned Dr Hollingworth against recommending the appointment of a clergyman accused of sex abuse to the church's own sex abuse committee. Dr Hollingworth ignored both the advice and the available evidence against the clergyman, the Sunday programme reported.
The governor-general has already indicated he was not swayed by the allegations against Canon Ross McAuley, and accepted his claim of innocence.
However, the Sunday programme quoted a committee member and a report of its investigation of Canon McAuley which was subsequently sent to Dr Hollingworth.
"We felt compelled to, in fact, explain with accuracy, with the only evidence that's available, that the evidence was given to the archbishop," said a committee member, the Rev David Axten.
A letter to Dr Hollingworth outlining the committee's findings, written in October 1997, recommended that Canon McAuley be banned from any one-to-one contact with male congregation members for 12 months.
"Indicators are that his inappropriate behaviour is more widespread and more compulsive than this single complaint indicates," the letter said.
"We believe that good intentions will in no way guarantee safety and that at present he and others are substantially at risk." But Dr Hollingworth later recommended that Canon McAuley be appointed to the sexual abuse committee, which was established just six months after Dr Hollingworth had dismissed the first of two allegations against him.
"He interviewed McAuley and the complainant and concluded that the allegation of inappropriate sexual behaviour could not be corroborated and that there were insufficient grounds to remove McAuley as Precentor," the statement from the governor-general's office said.- (AFP)