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Australian governor steps aside
SYDNEY, Australia -- Australia's scandal-tainted governor-general has temporarily stood aside from his post as nominal head of state until a rape allegation made against him dating back to the 1960s is resolved in court. Prime Minister John Howard on Sunday told reporters that the British queen's representative Governor-General Peter Hollingworth had decided to step down until the case was determined. "It has been agreed between the governor-general and myself that Dr. Hollingworth will stand aside from his position as governor-general pending the determination of the court proceedings initiated in the Supreme Court of Victoria," Howard told reporters. As the longest-serving state governor, the queen's representative in Tasmania, Sir Guy Green, would stand in for Hollingworth. The governor-general has been under pressure to resign over his handling of child sex abuse cases in Anglican schools in the state of Queensland that came to his attention when he was Archbishop of Brisbane. His tenure was weakened further with revelations last week that a woman claimed she had been raped by Hollingworth in the mid-1960s, an accusation he has strenuously denied. The woman killed herself last month, but the claim is still before the Victorian Supreme Court. Australia, a former British colony, retains Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. As her representative, the governor general is nominal head of state, commander-in-chief of the defense forces and performs duties such as signing legislation into law and swearing-in governments. A yearlong Anglican Church inquiry found that when Hollingworth was a senior Anglican archbishop in the early 1990s he had allowed a pedophile priest to continue working despite knowing the man had sexually abused a 14-year old girl. The rape allegation emerged last Thursday after the court lifted orders suppressing the identities of those involved. Last month, after filing the civil case, the woman committed suicide, but her lawyers have vowed the case will go ahead. Howard said that Hollingworth would not be able to consider resigning over the mishandling of the pedophile cases when he was Anglican archbishop of Queensland state, until the case over the rape allegations in the Supreme Court of Victoria state was finished. "It is only when those proceedings have been determined that the governor general can give consideration to the longer term tenure of his office," Howard said. The prime minister said that Hollingworth would consider the "dignity and the protection of the office above all other considerations." Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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