Australian senator was 'judge, jury, executioner'

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Civil liberties advocates want Nick Xenophon hauled before a parliamentary privileges committee after the independent senator named a priest at the centre of a rape allegation.

The Australian Civil Liberties Association said the naming in Parliament of Monsignor Ian Dempsey, accused of raping John Hepworth, who is now an Anglican bishop, was the "height of irresponsibility".

"Parliamentary privilege comes with responsibility and in our view that responsibility has been breached," spokesman Terry O'Gorman said yesterday. "Xenophon is acting as judge, jury and executioner."

O'Gorman said the law protecting the reputations of people accused of sexual crimes until after a committal hearing was in place for a reason.

"Mud sticks in relation to sexual allegations."

Dempsey may be able to exercise right-of-reply to the Senate, a course of action being considered by the priest.

The senator remains unrepentant about his naming of Dempsey.

He accused the Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, of "an extraordinary lapse of judgment" in dealing with the rape claim.

The senator seized on an admission by the archbishop that Dempsey had not been stood down because the allegations did not involve a child.

"However, if there are allegations of rape involving a priest against an adult, then the criteria is different. I find that extraordinary."

- AAP