Uniting Church Redress Scheme for Sexual Abuse Survivors under Fire

By Rachel Browne
Brisbane Times
October 28, 2017

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/nsw/uniting-church-redress-scheme-for-sexual-abuse-survivors-under-fire-20171026-gz8l01.html

When Cheryl Brealey describes her childhood as tough, it's an understatement.

The second-oldest of nine children, she was raised in Balmain, Glebe and Leichhardt in the 1950s, well before they became the gentrified inner west.

"They took my worth": Cheryl Brealey is a survivor of child sexual abuse.

With no money, an absent father and a mother who suffered mental health problems, she was often forced to beg shopkeepers for food.

By the age of nine, she was separated from her family and placed in Burnside Presbyterian Homes for Children in North Parramatta, where she experienced unimaginable torment for two years.

"I have suffered from physical, sexual and mental abuse," Ms Brealey said.

"It was extreme, vindictive, traumatising, sadistic violent abuse to my mind, my body, my soul and my wellbeing. They took my worth as an innocent child."

Now 64 and living in Brisbane, it took decades for Cheryl to disclose her story and work up the strength to seek compensation.

Through her lawyer, she approached the Uniting Church, which formed in 1977 when the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches merged.

Cheryl was shocked to discover that because her abuse occurred in NSW, the Uniting Church's redress scheme would offer her significantly less than abuse survivors in other states.

The Uniting Church's redress scheme varies from state to state, capped at $200,000 for people who suffered abuse in Queensland, $150,000 for Victoria and $100,000 for NSW.

"After being silenced for over 50 years ... I deserve to be treated like everyone else, to get the same monetary amount of redress funding," she said.

"It is ludicrous that people in one state get more than people in another state. It should be the same amount all over Australia, not one state favoured over another."

Cheryl, who has written a book, In the Life of Another Day and Time, based on her experiences, believes there is "no valid reason" for the discrepancy.

Maurice Blackburn, the legal firm representing her, has also raised the inconsistency with the Uniting Church.

Head of Maurice Blackburn's national sexual and institutional abuse litigation practice Michelle James said the church should adopt a consistent national approach to redress.

"The abuse is still horrific no matter where it occurred," she said.

"This disparity adds to the trauma of our clients. There is no explanation as to why there is a difference of $100,000 between a person abused in Coolangatta and a person abused in Tweed Heads. It's the same abuse. It makes no sense."

A spokeswoman for the The Uniting Church said the disparity was due to different synods in each state developing their own interim redress schemes. There are two interim schemes operating in NSW, with the cap increased to $150,000 to bring it into line with the federal government's national redress scheme, to start in 2018.

She said the Uniting Church supported a consistent national redress scheme.

"In all our conversations on redress, both with the Royal Commission and the federal government, the Uniting Church has continuously advocated for a single national redress scheme, in the belief that such a scheme would provide the best chance for justice, certainty, equity, transparency and consistency in redress for all survivors," she said.

The Royal Commission released analysis in March which showed that Uniting Church institutions have been the subject of more than 2500 allegations or incidents of abuse over the past 40 years.

The federal government tabled legislation for its national redress scheme in parliament on Thursday with a proposed cap of $150,000.

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