AUSTRALIA
WA Today
May 17, 2015
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
Australia’s peak advocate for children raised in orphanages and foster homes has urged the Federal Government to rethink its rejection of a national support scheme for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) has written to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, asking the Commonwealth to help fund a redress scheme so victims are not forced to turn to the institutions where they were abused.
Executive officer of CLAN, Leonie Sheedy, argues adults who were abused as children in publicly funded institutions should receive Government-supported redress.
The Federal Government opposes the idea of a national redress scheme saying it would be too expensive and time consuming to implement.
“You are choosing to say the Federal Government will not manage or contribute to a national redress scheme so desperately needed by so many people,” Ms Sheedy wrote.
“You are choosing to say the responsibility for any redress scheme lies solely with the institutions in which we suffered.
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