by AndersonsInfo 147 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
Victoria is the state at the bottom of the main continent. Brisbane is in Qld on the east coast. Only Vic has introduced the WWC (or now known as Assessment Notice) requirements.
I am quite certain though that the media will jump on this Australia wide.
If I was mister Unthank I would pursue to force all baptized witnesses to get this card, since they are all 'ordained ministers' and they all have unsupervised contact with children. If they are out in field service, they are volunteering, and they have contact with children at the door, so every publisher needs this card!
It would be so nice if they get forced into this, and then a large percentage can't go to the KH anymore because they have a bad history. If an elder can't keep his hands off a kid, swoosh, off he goes never to be seen again! One can only hope that more countries will start adopting a similar system.
Hopefully many JWs will feel betrayed and wake up when they see certain elders disappear in this manner.
Children Care and Protection Act 1998
NSW...........
I'm with steve2 - this is a private individual's action against an organisation. Unless Mr Unthank has excess to large amounts of money, I don't see this going through the courts unless a govt agency agrees to take on the case.
I applaud Mr Unthank for his efforts, but I refuse to get excited over this until it becomes a major court case.
If I was mister Unthank I would pursue to force all baptized witnesses to get this card, since they are all 'ordained ministers' and they all have unsupervised contact with children. If they are out in field service, they are volunteering, and they have contact with children at the door, so every publisher needs this card! [the-illuminator81]
He is, check out page 22 from: 'The Submission' pdf
1.19 ♦ This amounts to a ridiculously 60,000 individual breaches of the Act occurring each week of which these indictable criminal offences are punishable by up to two years imprisonment for each offence and a fine of up to Au$132,144.00 per an offence. From 1 July 2008 to 29 December 2010, the first 2 ½ years of non compliance, this has amounted to over 7.8 Million individual offences with potential fines totalling over Au$1,000 Billion. This does not factor in volunteers such as “Assistance for Parents”.
1.20 ♦ NOTE: The Formula for calculating the above: (2,500 children) x (8 Watch Tower Society officers on average) x (3 times per week) x (2 ½ years or 130 weeks) = 7,800,000 individual breaches of the Act x (Au$132,144.00 per “an offence”) = Au$1,030,723,200,000.00
Ok 3Mozzies, thanks for clearing that up!
H ere is some of the requirement details
"A person who is performing ‘child-related work’ as defined by the
Working with Children Act 2005 is required to apply for a Check
People engaged in ‘child-related work’ are required to apply for a WWC Check. Under the
Working with
Children Act 2005
−
work or volunteer in connection with one of the 20 child-related occupational fields (including
sporting clubs and associations);
and
−
have regular direct contact with children under 18;
and
−
that contact is not directly supervised;
and
−
do not qualify for an exemption (e.g. parent volunteer, VIT registration, sworn police officer).
If
all of the above statements apply to you, you are doing ‘child-related work’, and you need to submit a
WWC Check application by the relevant due date (please consult the phasing-in plan for due dates)."
(Religious organisations have now been included but it appears this was phased in after 2006)
As I live in Australia I have seen this law being taken very seriously. A problem that we have here is that the Government sets a law and expects everyone to toe the line, pretty much on a self compliance basis. It does not have the resources to police many of the laws that it sets and it is not until people start jumping up and down that they take further action. It is very costly and due to this they usually hope for the majority to comply and if one or two organisations/groups don't they are pretty proud that they have caught most people into abiding.
However, as this WWC law is for the safety of the children and it has already cost inidividuals and groups a lot of money to register it is likely that the Government will act on any non compliance, especially with a lot of publicity.
I suspect that there is another legal issue here that the GB have a problem with and that is whether their volunteers are actually working for them in the first place and this may affect other legal responsibilities such as workers compensation.
Steve Unthank is a nut. While his goals are noble, the cover letter will make any prosecutor or representative roll their eyes and move to to ignore the next nut that claims to have authority to represent God and Jesus in court. Excerpt:
This, oral and written testimony satisfies Legal and Scriptural requirements of “two witnesses”.
As such, Jehovah God and Jesus Christ can cite such evidence and action in establishing THEIR
innocence in relation to any and all allegations made against THEM in this matter, including any
allegations made that they failed to protect the Children of God.— Proverbs 27:11.
My authority to do this is by reason of my Ordination as a Minister of Jehovah God and as a
disciple and follower of Jesus Christ—of which ordination took place “in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the holy spirit” as required by the Holy Bible (Matthew 28:19), and is
recognised by Jehovah God and Jesus Christ as well as by the Christian Faith and by the State.
As such, I am fully authorised to bear witness by defending both Jehovah God and Jesus Christ
and as well as any implicating of the holy spirit and the Kingdom of God (God’s Kingdom) in
relation to any allegations made of lawlessness. This authority also allows me to represent
Jehovah God and Jesus Christ and God’s Kingdom (Matthew 6:9,10) without Conflict of Interest
and allows Jehovah to approve and bless such action. (Psalm 119:126) My authority to bear
witness in this manner is approved by the Holy Bible
Yeah, when you open your case with "God has authorized me to represent him, Jesus and the Holy spirit and oh, let me cite some vague scriptures that I claim give me this authority", you can pretty much be sure your case has already been flushed down the toilet.
EntirelyPossible is right on the money: Steve Unthank's prose is full of rhetoric. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell of the court having the authority to demand that a religion sign off a document written specifically against its very foundation. Whether or not you agree with the Watchtower Society is immaterial: Mr Unthank weakens the likelihood of his action succeeding because it reeks of extremism. Meanwhile, the heterogeneous anti-Jw brigade laps up almost anything remotely vengeful about the JWs. I consider myself a hardened ex-JW who thoroughly rejects its teachings as idiotic. However, if I sensed an individual was milking the law to bring the Watchtower down, I'd willingly speakup about the inverted bullying. I'd expect a lot of Australianswould as well, religious or otherwise.
I understand that in Victoria a private citizen can take government to court thru VCAT. I have a relative taking on two banks and worksafe victoria and had had several runs through court with much success. He is also self representing and doing all the cross examining stuff with a barrister assisting.
Perhaps that is how this can be done.
either way, after reading very large sections of Steven Unthank's submission IF this can get rolling it will be BIG. It would be impossible to 'get' the WT for things like local child abuse and maybe even for the alledged 'sex club' Steven mentions, but the LAW of WWC may allow those other issues to come to public light and prosecution in a best case scenario.
Kind of like, they couldn't nail Alcapone on liquor law violations, but they still shut him down on tax evasion.
On one hand i feel he may be doing a classic ask for as maximum punishment/ accountability knowing that a minimum may have to be settled for. But like in a custody battle, if you ask for minimum you get minimum.
Regardless of the outcome from a legal angle, the media needs to get into this. If it is good enough for them to attack and report on the Catholic church then it is about time they took on the Watchtower. It IS about time the governments of many lands took a good hard look at fundamentalist minority 'religions' that seem to be able to fly under the radar.
Looking past the "jehovah/Jesus'' parts, it sure appears that he exhausted all the correct channels before going this far.
As for those parts, perhaps he was establishing both legal and scriptural right/correctness for his fight against the Watchtower...remember, he sought to have this dealt with outside of courts first, and the two witness rule the WT hides behind could then be used against them. Just a thought.
I also wonder whether we (labelled by the WT as Apostate) should keep a low profile as obviouly Steven Unthank isnt hanging out here (that i know of at least) and it would be a shame if a global network of WT opponents support got the whole thing derailed as some sort of mass disgruntled apostate army. ( I dont think WE would do anything to damage but the WT would sure link 'us' if they thought it would serve their purpose) Do i make sense on this? I don't know, but i do know that We all know the WT has teams of dirty lawyers and dirtier tricks... we should not trust them further than we can spit on this.
take a seat because this will be a drawn out affair. The Lawyers will drag this out till steven is an old man if they can.
Oz
