AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Editorial
What a kick in the guts the federal government administered to the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse when it bluntly opposed the establishment of a national redress scheme.
Over months of hearings and in many submissions, survivors and their representatives made clear to the royal commission they strongly supported a national approach as the one most likely to deliver justice, fairness and consistency.
And yet, despite bipartisan support for the establishment of the commission and its terms of reference suggesting all governments accept the need for effective redress, the Abbott government rejected their “ideal” model at the first opportunity.
Perhaps it is looking at examples such as the Irish Residential Institutions Redress Board. At its inception in 2002, the board was expected to deliver €200 million ($282.5 million) to 2000 survivors of abuse of all forms, be half funded by Catholic religious orders and take up to five years. At the start of 2014, 16,000 survivors had received €1.6 billion, mostly from state coffers.
The royal commission’s actuarial modelling estimates that 65,000 Australians might seek redress, but warns it’s impossible to predict numbers with any certainty. It estimates a scheme with an average payment of $65,000 would total $4.3 billion over 10 years, with government paying $1.9 billion.
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