AUSTRALIA
The Australian

OCTOBER 27, 2014

Dan Box
Crime Reporter
Sydney

THE chair of the child abuse royal commission will today say that thousands of people who have been sexually abused as children should receive financial compensation, potentially awarded by an independent national redress scheme funded by governments and other institutions.

In a speech at Parliament House in Canberra today, Peter McClellan will say the commission is due to formally report on the issue next year but “everyone accepts there should be an effective response available to all survivors”.

This response should include an opportunity to “engage with the institution where they were abused”, the provision of counselling or psychiatric care and “a lump-sum payment which marks the abuse.”

“One of the difficulties faced in providing effective redress is that some of the institutions in which children were abused have ceased to exist. Others have no money,”…