AUSTRALIA Closer to Abuse Redress Scheme

9 News
November 5, 2015

http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/11/05/16/35/nsw-vic-support-national-redress-scheme

Australia is one step closer to a national redress scheme for thousands of survivors of sexual abuse in state-run and other institutions.

Victoria and NSW have joined faith-based institutions, including the Catholic Church and the Salvation Army, in backing the recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for a national approach to compensating victims.

The urgent need for such a national scheme was emphasised on Thursday by royal commission chairman Peter McClellan.

Justice McClellan told an international conference of sex-abuse treatment experts that extensive research and engagement with abuse survivors had led commissioners to decide "all previous responses (schemes) have been inadequate".

These schemes are state-based or run by institutions where the abuse happened.

Justice McClellan described them as inadequate and unfair because they seldom provided psychological help, and the monetary payments varied greatly and went to only a limited number of survivors.

The commission recommended that Australia treat all survivors equally and has proposed a $4.3 billion scheme over 10 years under which more than 65,000 survivors will get between $10,000 and $200,000.

That scheme needs states and territories to hand over power to the Commonwealth and requires them to contribute funding for claims against the institutions they ran.

The proposal has been sitting with governments since May and was made public in September.

States and territories as well as institutions caught up in the sex-abuse revelations have been waiting on the federal government to clarify what it intends to do.

On Thursday, after a meeting of the COAG council for attorneys-general and justice ministers, NSW and Victoria announced their support for the national scheme.

NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton said the royal commission had shone a light on some of the darkest chapters of Australia's past and the state would fully back the commission proposal.

Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula said his state would also back the scheme.

In a communique issued on Thursday, the COAG council said ministers had discussed the royal commission's redress report and would re-list the matter for more detailed consideration at the next meeting of the council.

Not all jurisdictions and institutions are on board with a national scheme, mostly because they either have their own schemes in place or fear a drain on finances.

The South Australia Labor government said last week it would support a national scheme only if it was fully funded by the Commonwealth, even though Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has committed the ALP to backing the commission scheme.

The Catholic Church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council has welcomed the announcement by NSW and Victoria.

Council chief executive Francis Sullivan said there now seemed to be an inevitability about the commission's redress scheme becoming a reality.

"The NSW and Victorian governments and the Catholic Church account for roughly 75 per cent of the cost of the 10-year scheme so there is no longer any excuse for other institutions, particularly other state governments, not to become part of the scheme," he said.