Nick Xenophon called on the South Australian and Federal governments to introduce anti-cult legislation last Monday. Talking to Neos Kosmos independent Senator Nick Xenophon said anti-cult legislation similar to that operating in France is needed.
“We need to have anti-cult laws as they have in France, where there is a crime of ‘mental manipulation’ where you can prosecute these organisations for fraud and deception,” he said to Neos Kosmos.
His calls for law reform come one week after SA police raided 12 properties involved with the doomsday cult Agape Ministries, seizing explosives, guns and ammunition. “Cults had become more sophisticated and more dangerous,” the Senator said.
The French laws, which have been in operation for nearly 10 years, allow judges to dissolve cults if their leaders are involved in criminal activity.
Senator Xenophon’s call for anti-cult laws came after he introduced a bill in the senate two weeks ago, calling for a Senate enquiry into the activities of the Church of Scientology as well as a public benefits test to be applied to charities and religions, they are eligible for tax-free status.
“The UK has had that law in for years, which means that in order to get tax free status it must show that on balance it creates a greater public benefit than public detriment, in other words that it dies more good harm.”
Senator Xenophon says that organisations like Church of Scientology, who have tax-free status, avoid accountability.
The SA senator said he’d received “many complaints on the Church of Scientology which are a real concern” and believes it is an issue about having a test before “taxpayers subsidise these organisations.”
Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry threw his weight behind calls for a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, saying the church’s teachings are putting Australians’ lives at risk.
Professor McGorry, a world-renowned youth mental health expert, is supporting Senator Nick Xenophon’s efforts to set up an investigation into the church’s activities and its teachings on psychiatric care.
“It’s a bit like they’re [Church of Scientology] the deniers of the reality of mental illness, which is … irresponsible and dangerous,” he said last week.
Senator Xenophon says that while initially neither the ALP nor the Coalition supported his calls, that the “more stories of abuse they hear” they are changing positions. “Initially both sides were not supportive at all, but now there is greater awareness,” said Senator Xenophon to Neos Kosmos.