AUSTRALIA
9 News
AAP
The federal government’s rejection of a national redress scheme for people abused in institutions is the ultimate slap in the face and could lead to more deaths, a victim says.
Peter Blenkiron, who was abused in a Victorian Catholic school in 1974, blasted the Abbott government for rejecting the scheme as too costly and too complex to implement.
“It was the ultimate slap in the face,” the Ballarat man told AAP.
He said victims were losing hope and he feared more may commit suicide, with a high number of suicides and premature deaths among people who were abused as children in the Ballarat diocese.
“Not every one of the survivors out there needs it but the ones that do, if they don’t get some practical help they’ll be dead,” he said.
“We need to put a system in place to stop the deaths and if you don’t, the bubble of hope will burst and people will die. People are dying today.”
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