In short:
The Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia, is looking to part ways with the Christian Brothers after agreeing to take on its child abuse payouts.
In June, the order announced it was running out of money for survivors and applied to stop all litigation on compensation claims, some of which were in the final stages.
What’s next?
A lawyer says survivors may have to wait up to two years to receive settlements due to new legal barriers.
The national organisation set up by the Christian Brothers, which runs 61 Catholic schools across Australia, is considering severing its ties with the order amid mounting tensions over compensation to victims of child sexual abuse.
Relations between the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia (TEREA) and the Christian Brothers have become strained after the order did not disclose relevant information about its financial position.
For nearly a decade, the Christian Brothers transferred school properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars to TEREA, typically for free or for as little as a dollar. The entity oversees schools attended by 44,000 Australian students that received $732.7 million in taxpayer funding last year.
In June, the Christian Brothers applied to have all child abuse litigation against it stopped as it was running out of money and facing imminent insolvency. The child abuse royal commission estimated that historically 22 per cent of Christian Brothers were alleged paedophiles.
After initially resisting attempts to make it liable for the abuse claims, TEREA agreed to take responsibility for current and future payouts under a revised compensation scheme.