Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said two weeks ago that Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson should have resigned when he was convicted in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a pedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s.

"There's something going on in the culture. And one of the elements of that cultural shift is that people are prepared to speak up in a way that they would never have done before."

An Australian missionary nun ordered by Philippine authorities to leave the country is still in danger of being deported, despite winning a reprieve from the Justice Department, said a top government official.

Such legislation would threaten Catholics' religious freedom.

The Catholic Church estimates it alone will be liable for about AU$1 billion ($757 million) in compensation.

Philip Wilson was found guilty of failing to inform police about allegations of the sexual abuse of minors by a priest in the 1970s.