Sex Abuse Report Criticises Queen's Man in Canberra

The governor general of Australia, the Rt Rev Peter Hollingworth, is ignoring calls to resign after the publication yesterday of a report which found he had "acted inappropriately" by refusing to sack a paedophile priest in 1995, when he was the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane.

The priest, John Elliot, is in prison after pleading guilty to more than a dozen abuse-related charges.

The report on a church inquiry into his behaviour found that he had acted inappropriately in respect of two out of nine complaints made against him.

The governor general's neutral role representing the Queen as head of state has been the subject of party political warfare in the two years since Dr Hollingworth was appointed.

The Labor party federal opposition accuses the federal government of favouritism towards a tainted political friend, and the government accuses Dr Hollingworth's opponents of a witch hunt.

The opposition leader, Simon Crean, led the demands for Dr Hollingworth's resignation.

"A governor general must be a symbol of unity and our nation's values and must have the confidence of the nation," he said. "If the governor general will not resign then the prime minister must terminate his appointment."

Dr Hollingworth released a statement merely acknowledging his "serious error of judgment" in the abuse cases.

But the prime minister, John Howard, defended him and refused to countenance sacking him. "I'm told that there's no finding in the report of any deliberate misconduct," he said.

Child abuse campaigners attacked Mr Howard's comments. Hetty Johnston, director of the Brisbane child abuse organisation Bravehearts, said: "We had him knowing that this Elliot was a child sex offender, and he chose to ignore that information. If that's not deliberate misconduct, I'd like to know what is."

Abuse organisations want a royal commission to investigate the allegations against Dr Hollingworth, but the government has refused and yesterday's report is the result of a private investigation commissioned by the Brisbane archdiocese.

Its publication was in question until yesterday. Diocesan inquiries are not protected from libel actions unless their findings are presented before parliament. The federal government has refused to table the report in Canberra, and it was only published after it was put before the Queensland parliament by the Labor state premier, Peter Beattie.

Ms Johnston said many abuse victims were unwilling to go before a church inquiry. Local law firms have more than 100 abuse cases on their books, and hundreds more are known to Bravehearts.

"Let's not whitewash this thing: this report is not the panacea to this problem. It's just the tip of the iceberg," Ms Johnston said.

Since the early 1930s the governor general has been appointed by the federal government and the job is seen as in the gift of the prime minister.

Many regard Dr Hollingworth as a compliant figure compared with his predecessor, Sir William Deane, whose outspoken support for multiculturalism and Aboriginal reconciliation often embarrassed the Howard government.

Previous governors general have come from political or judicial backgrounds, and Dr Hollingworth's appointment was seen as further evidence that Mr Howard's conservative government was too close to the churches.

George Pell, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, who is also regarded as a Howard ally, was cleared last year by an internal church inquiry of allegations that he had molested teenage boys at a holiday camp in the 1960s.