Amendments, to be made to two existing acts, will impose a statutory duty on organisations that have care or supervision over children to prevent abuse by taking reasonable precautions.

Reasonable precautions would be assessed against the resources available to the organisation, its relationship with the child, compliance with child safety standards, and the level of control an organisation had over a perpetrator.

Attorney-General Elise Archer told Parliament organisations would be held vicariously liable for child abuse if the perpetrator was employed by the organisation or held an employment-like relationship.

The legislation also allows for a court to set aside a previous settlement between a child abuse survivor and an organisation to enable the survivor to instigate civil litigation.