Attorney-General Elise Archer has released draft legislation which will lift the veil of the confessional for the purposes of reporting child sexual abuse.

It could see priests, teachers, nurses or doctors jailed for life under the criminal code for failing to report a serious offence.

Ms Archer said it was the first in a tranche of reforms from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to toughen laws against failing to report serious crimes.

The royal commission made 409 recommendations including that no-one should be immune from reporting child abuse.

“There will be a lot of commentary around this and I realise it is particularly difficult for the Catholic Church, particularly their religious ministry in relation to centuries old canon law,” she said.

“I've kept the Catholic Church informed and I’m sure they understand the consequences of the 409 recommendations.

“I don’t want to have a situation where people would start going to confession and there would be that immunity in place.”

Ms Archer said she was not aware of any Tasmanian priests who had with-held information and protecting children was the priority.

“There is no excuse for failure to report the horrific abuse of children, least of all for institutions who have been named in the Royal Commission as failing to prevent child abuse in the past,” she said.

Archbishop Porteous, who is overseas, said in June that Catholic priests were obliged to uphold the Seal of Confession.

“Removing priest-penitent privilege from the law and requiring mandatory reporting of confessions will either have no effect on child safety or will actually make children less safe,” he said.

“Perpetrators of this terrible sin very rarely seek out confession and if mandatory reporting of confessions were required they would almost certainly not confess.

“Any perpetrator who was minded to confess would almost certainly do so anonymously, so no mandatory reporting would be possible.”

Labor’s justice spokeswoman Ella Haddad said the legislation would encourage people to speak out about child abuse.

“It’s really important the safety of our children is put before religious convictions,” she said.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor also welcomed the draft legislation.

“For centuries children have suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church which has a deplorable record of not protecting children” she said.

Under the draft legislation, confessional privilege as a defence to non-reporting of child abuse will be excluded.

It will also broaden the scope of the ‘grooming offence’ in the Criminal Code to provide greater protection to young people.