Transcript from Doorstop with Archbishop Peter Carnley Brisbane 22/7/01, 11am  

On child abuse and the confessional… 

The advice would be if the person confesses to some kind of child abuse then they should turn themselves into police and deal with it. 

Electronic tags for refugees… 

We have to talk in terms of the lesser of two evils. While we might not want to tag people, if there was some doubt about their bona fides I think that would be a much better option than putting them in detention centers. It is not ideal but in terms of civil liberties it is much better than locking them up.

I guess the ideal thing would be the Canadian pattern where people are released into the community and would have to report to police. And it is in their interests to do that – if they want permanent residency that would be a simple thing for them to do.

But given that there might be some hesitancy in Australia to do that – there might be talk of people disappearing and being lost in the community and all that sort of thing – and they might be criminals and all that sort of talk we have – I think we should look at the idea of tagging. I saw it in New York where it was an alternative to imprisonment and it was really quite impressive. People with a tag on were imprisoned in their home and they would have to be in their home after 9 o’clock and if they were not home after 9 o’clock the officer would take off in the car and he had a little screen in his car which took him straight to the place the pub or whatever it was where the person had gone to.

I was very impressed. 

Refugee debate and Federal Immigration Minister 

I will be chairing the session, so I won’t be taking any message. I think he has a very difficult portfolio. Aboriginal Affairs and the difficulties he has with asylum seekers. I think it is the hardest job a politician in Australia currently has. So I think we’ve got to list to him and hear his side of the story…try and contribute to a better way forward for Australia.

I think we could do better. Other countries seem to be doing it better.

Sexuality

I think it will be a lively debate because it is a very serious and complex issue. I hope however that the suggestion of our doctrine panel that the report Faithfulness in Fellowship will be commended to wider study in the church at large before we make any hard and fast decisions is taken up. Those of us on the doctrine panel have learned a lot from each other. We want to share our conclusions with the church. It is important for all the people of god to walk together on this.

Women Bishops

There must be a vote because there is a bill for a canon. I would not like to call it. I am a supporter of women bishops. And that has been the actual position of this church since the 1970s when the general synod at the time adopted a resolution declaring that the objections that had been raised against the ordination of women did not constitute a barrier to their ordination as deacons, priests or bishops. That has been our official theological stance as a church since the late 1970s. It really is a question of how we do it and how we cater for those who still disagree with women in the priesthood and the episcopate. We have to deal pastorally with these people.

Division and women bishops

That is often said and I hear that and it was certainly said before we ordained the first women priests as well. But there are a lot of issues that you can cite as issues that would cause disunity. In Sydney the proposal that lay people can celebrate the Eucharist would probably be a much more divisive issue than women bishops.

Sydney to go ahead – tit for tat?

I think the difference is that in the case of the ordination of women the decision was made by the general synod and that will be the case with this general synod in regard to women bishops. And no decisions has been taken by general synod with regard to lay presidency at the Eucharist.

Ordination of women before the general synod voted

That was in a situation where the appellate tribunal could not give a ruling whether the general synod or diocesan synods had the power to do it. So we had to go ahead and have it dealt with in the civil courts and of course we won in the civil courts and then after that the general synod simply clarified the church law and we ahead with diocesan legislation.

ENDS.