r/u_JuxtaPostBl0g

Some pretty wild details have come out of the NSW Supreme Court.... Court documents have revealed the Christian Brothers deliberately kept nine convicted child sex offenders as members of the order, saying they have a religious duty to care for them and calling it a "Gospel imperative". The details came out during insolvency proceedings after the Christian Brothers Oceania Province applied for a moratorium to pause abuse compensation claims while it tries to sort out its finances.... According to an affidavit filed by Brother Gerard Brady, there are about 176 Christian Brothers left in the Oceania Province, with most based here in Australia.... Among them are nine convicted child sex offenders, including one who's currently behind bars.... The leadership apparently considered kicking them out of the order.... but decided against it.... Instead they argued they have obligations under Canon Law to care for all Brothers, even those convicted of serious criminal offences, saying caring for offenders is part of helping "the needy" and is a Gospel imperative.... They also argued that keeping offenders inside the congregation is actually better for the community because they can monitor them, support treatment and keep an eye on them, rather than having them out in the community without that support.... The affidavit even acknowledges plenty of victims and members of the public will see this as putting offenders ahead of survivors.... but the Christian Brothers say that isn't their intention and argue they're trying to balance caring for offenders with protecting the wider community.... All this comes as the order says it's basically running out of cash because of historical child abuse compensation claims.... They're proposing to sell around $217 million worth of property and divide the money between survivors if the restructuring plan gets approved.... The documents also reveal representatives from the Christian Brothers met with officials from the Holy See earlier this year asking for financial help before declaring they were close to insolvency.... According to the affidavit, no financial assistance was provided.... The Christian Brothers Oceania Province covers Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, although most of the Brothers are based in Australia.... The proceedings are still before the NSW Supreme Court and the restructuring proposal hasn't been finally approved yet.... Safe to say this one's going to fire up plenty of debate.... especially around accountability, justice for survivors and whether this was really the right call. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/03/christian-brothers-kept-nine-child-abusers-in-religious-order-due-to-gospel-imperative-to-help-the-needy-court-documents-reveal-ntwnfb

Jacinta Allan keeps banging on about having "zero tolerance" for organised crime and corruption in Victoria's construction industry. Sounds great at a press conference, but according to reporting by the Australian Financial Review, Victoria Police reportedly asked for stronger powers to access financial records during organised crime and corruption investigations... and the government said no.

So which is it? If you've got zero tolerance, why knock back the very tools police say would help them follow the money? Anyone with half a clue knows organised crime is all about the cash. Follow the money and you expose money laundering, kickbacks, bribery and dodgy dealings. That's hardly rocket science.

Victoria has been hammered by allegations for years involving the Big Build, unions, labour hire companies and organised crime, with billions of taxpayer dollars on the line. Yet when police reportedly asked for stronger financial investigation powers, they didn't get them. That doesn't exactly scream "zero tolerance."

To be clear, this doesn't prove the government has done anything wrong, and nobody's saying those powers would've solved everything. But it does raise a bloody good question. If the cops reckoned they needed stronger powers to investigate organised crime, why were they knocked back?

Maybe the government has a good reason. If they do, let's hear it. Because "zero tolerance" is easy to say, but actions speak louder than slogans. At the moment, the two don't seem to match up.