South Australia’s chief prosecutor is calling for new laws to thwart the rise of cults across the nation.

Stephen Pallaras says a new approach by law-makers needs to address the “mental damage and mental harm” caused by cults.

A month after South Australian police raided more than a dozen properties associated with the bizarre Adelaide-based Agape Ministries doomsday cult, several questions remain unanswered.

But for independent senator Nick Xenophon the weapons found during the raids are a chilling reminder that decisive action must be taken to prevent cults getting footholds in Australian society.

Australia should introduce anti-cult legislation similar to laws operating in France, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says.

“The current laws that we have just don’t deal with issues of psychological manipulation, effectively brainwashing, the way that people are deceived into handing over their money to these cults,” he said.

Senator Nick Xenophon says organisations claiming to be religious thrive on their tax-free status.

He says legislation he introduced to the Senate last week would help flush out dangerous groups.

“If a cult cannot get tax-free status because of its activities then clearly that would make it more difficult for it to flourish and to expand,” he said.

A woman has told a media conference her granddaughters, aged eight and six, were promised in marriage to members of the Agape Ministries cult.

Meanwhile, Senator Nick Xenophon says he warned the South Australian Government about a suspicious doomsday cult in Adelaide and has called for the group’s assets to be frozen.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon has called for a judicial inquiry into the Church of Scientology following further claims of systematic abuse of members.

“We have allegations of child abuse, coerced abortions, false imprisonment, bullying and extortion. Surely the victims of Scientology deserve a proper inquiry,” he said.

Senator Nick Xenophon has vowed not to give up on his quest to bring the controversial Church of Scientology to task over tax exemptions.

Scientology had been variously accused of criminal behaviour, coercing abortions, stalking, transcending child labour laws and unconscionable treatment of members who were charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for their courses, he said.

South Australian independent senator Nick Xenophon will keep pressing for an inquiry into the Church of Scientology, despite the major political parties joining to defeat his second attempt to refer allegations of abuse to a Senate committee.

The cult refers to the allegations as “”rumour and outright lies.”

Addressing a conference of cult survivors in Brisbane today, Senator Nick Xenophon said a new motion for a new parliamentary inquiry might include a push for police to take criminal action against cults.

He was also attracted to using the Trade Practices Act to prosecute groups for false and misleading conduct if they wrongly claimed to provide therapeutic benefits to their devotees.

The conference has heard a number of heart-rending stories from different religion-based and therapeutic cults.

Independent South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon will address a conference in Brisbane which claims to be the first specifically organised to help people who have left cults.

Senator Xenophon has been campaigning for an inquiry into the Church of Scientology and its tax exempt status.