AUSTRALIA
Eternity News
November 1, 2017
By Tess Holgate
Churches and institutions are being called upon to join the Federal Government’s national scheme to financially compensate victims of child sexual abuse.
In early 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended the establishment of the national redress scheme. This included a call for churches to come up with a national response to the proposed national redress scheme.
The scheme is opt-in, meaning that any state, institution or church which does not want to sign up to compensate victims with payments of up to $150,000, will not be obliged to do so. The scheme also includes the provision of access to counselling and psychological services and a direct personal response from each participating institution responsible for the abuse, if requested by the survivor.
The Royal Commission estimated that about 60,000 children were sexually abused in institutions, but only approximately 1000 of them in Commonwealth institutions. For the scheme to provide compensation to the majority of survivors, state governments, institutions and churches will need to sign on to it.
Legislation to establish the scheme was tabled last week. If it passes, survivors will be allowed to apply for compensation from July 1, 2018.
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