AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail
By AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Catholic Church says it is disappointed the federal government has so quickly rejected a national scheme to compensate abuse survivors.
In its response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the church backed a national, fair, compassionate and independent scheme which would be run by the federal government with the participation of state and territory governments.
Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council (TJHC), told a national inquiry on Thursday that it was surprising that the Commonwealth had initiated the inquiry and “yet has so quickly discounted itself from one of the most fundamental issues we have to redress”.
“You would think that any government that was setting up a Royal Commission of this nature would know that a possible redress scheme would be one option,” Mr Sullivan said.
The commission has recommended a single national scheme and done modelling to show it would cost $4.3 billion and cover 65,000 survivors.
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