George Pell case: Royal commission findings should be made public, says Christian Porter

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the child sex abuse royal commission’s findings about Cardinal George Pell should be made public.

Attorney-General Christian Porter in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Attorney-General Christian Porter says the child sex abuse royal commission’s findings about Cardinal George Pell should be made public following his acquittal, if that can be done without impeding any current or future criminal ­investigations.

Sections of the commission’s 2017 final report were redacted so as not to prejudice child sex abuse cases against Cardinal Pell while they were before the courts.

They relate to Cardinal Pell’s role as a consultor to Ballarat ­bishop Ronald Mulkearns, who the commission found moved serial pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale from parish to parish, enabling him to abuse hundreds of children. Mr Porter said his view was “where possible” further ­tabling of redacted sections of the report “should occur”.

“It does require some liaison between my office and Victorian authorities, investigative and prosecutorial, to make sure further ­tabling with less redaction would not prejudice any future investigations of a number of types,” Mr Porter said, indicating the process could take “a number of weeks”.

“But my strong preference is to have as much of the information that has been redacted tabled with less redaction.”

Asked what options were available if Victorian authorities did not agree to table the redacted sections, Mr Porter said the decision was ultimately his, as commonwealth Attorney-General.

“But conventionally and traditionally, the reason that discretion has existed on my part is to try and protect proceedings and make proceedings fair to both complainants and accused people that may arise in the context of ­information given to a royal commission,” Mr Porter said.

“I would never exercise that discretion ill-advisedly: without seeking the views, without seeking the assurances, getting information from the authorities about what may or may not be on foot and how it would be affected by the information that might be contained in the report. That's about trying to ensure the justice system operates sensibly and fairly to everyone involved.”

The royal commission heard and accepted extensive evidence that Bishop Mulkearns was aware of Ridsdale’s pedophile activities.

Cardinal Pell gave evidence from Rome in 2016 that Bishop Mulkearns kept this information from him and other consultors at meetings where decisions about the future of the pedophile priest were made. The commission in its final report rejected the cardinal’s claim, finding that of several meetings Cardinal Pell attended it was “inconceivable” that the consultors were not by that time aware of Ridsdale’s activities.

“We do not accept Bishop Mulkearns lied to his consultors,” the commission found. ‘‘It is inconceivable in these circumstances that Bishop Mulkearns deceived his consultors by not telling them the true reason (for moving Ridsdale to new parishes).

“There would be little utility in doing so. The secret was out in at least two parishes by 1978. His ­efforts to deceive the consultors who did not know the true reasons would have been apparent to those who did. (Mulkearns) would have been exposing himself to some of his consultors as being deceptive, which he is not likely to have done unless there was good reason to.’’