Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said at a press conference on Wednesday that the ACT government wanted to make sure that every adult in the territory was aware the new laws applied to them.

He also said the government did not believe there was any evidence that any group of people should be excluded under the new laws, which also broaden the categories of mandatory reporters, including religious practitioners.

"It doesn't matter what your faith background is, it doesn't matter whether you're practicing from one faith or another or no faith at all, nothing should be more important than making sure that our children are safe," he said.

"Every adult in the ACT now has the responsibility for ensuring that if they reasonably believe that a child has been sexually abused they must report that to police."

The new laws were passed in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and will come into effect on September 1. The failing to report charge carries two years jail as a maximum penalty for anyone found to have not complied.

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ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates said on Wednesday that keeping children safe was a whole-of-community responsibility. The reforms were about improving the laws that related to adults proactively reporting abuse, she said,

"It's very important that every adult in our community that has contact with children, whether that be at a school, at a sports club, in a religious community, knows what the law says about their obligation to report," Ms Yates said.

"Children are particularly vulnerable, and if they tell a trusted adult that something is happening that is not OK they expect that adult to take action."

Some members of the community, including for example, doctors, dentists, nurses, teachers and childcare workers, must already take action if they believe on reasonable grounds that a child has been neglected or abused.

The new laws coming into effect next month also broaden the categories of those mandated reporters to include religious ministers and church clergy.

However, there have been concerns raised about the ability to detect and prosecute priests and clergy who did not report. A review from Honourable Justice Julie Dodds-Streeton QC has also concluded the Catholic church was unlikely to comply with any laws that forced priests to break the seal of confession.

While the laws also extend to the Catholic Church confessional, the Archbishop Christopher Prowse drew the ire of anti-child abuse campaigners earlier this year when he said there could be "no reasonable expectation" that forcing priests to break the seal of confession would make people safer and he had urged the government to reject the new measures.