Add Category
Posted
Three months into the historic National Redress Scheme only a "handful" of payments have been made to victims of child sexual abuse in institutions, with some terminally ill survivors still awaiting a response.
It is just a tiny fraction of the 1,500 applications that have so far been received by the National Redress Scheme which started on 1 July.
The scheme was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, but so far only one-third of institutions have signed up to the scheme and four states are yet to participate.
It is estimated 60,000 survivors may be eligible to make a claim and that $4 billion is required to fund the scheme, with most of the money coming from the institutions where abuse was perpetrated.
Knowmore, the organisation which supported 9,000 people to tell their stories of abuse to the royal commission, now has the task of helping victims make their application for compensation and an apology.
Knowmore chief executive Warren Strange said in the first three months of the redress scheme the organisation had assisted more than 2,300 people, but determinations had been "made in a handful of cases".
"We have a process for giving priority to survivors who are elderly and those who might have very serious illnesses and those who might not have very much longer to live."
Mr Strange said abut 12 to 14 per cent Knowmore's total client group were in that category.
"Many people are coming forward in the latter stages of their life to seek redress," he said.
Knowmore has lodged 115 applications that were considered "urgent" — in some cases with clients being terminally ill — however none have not been resolved.
"We'd like to see it happen quickly. Institutions have two years under the legislation to join," Mr Strange said.
"We think survivors' interests are served by institutions making that decision quickly and certainly the Catholic church has announced its position in principle, but we'd like to see those steps completed quickly by it and by the other major churches so that survivors can look at the scheme and see those institutions are participating."
Scheme yet to go 'national'
Caroline Carroll, the chair of the Alliance for Forgotten Australian and a former state ward said it was "a sad reflection on this country that they've taken so long".
"We're really upset that a lot of churches and charities are yet to sign up and we're appalled by that," Ms Carroll said.
While the major churches — including the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting churches — have openly declared support for the National Redress Scheme.
They are among 16 institutions still not officially part of the scheme.
In a statement to the ABC, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said it continues to be a "strong advocate" for the scheme and "there has been significant collaboration between the church and the Commonwealth Department of Social Services to have Catholic institutions participating in the scheme as soon as possible.
"Both parties remain committed to that goal, which might necessitate a staggered entry from dioceses and archdioceses in states and territories where enabling legislation has been implemented."
Nine institutions including the Scouts, YMCA, The Salvation Army and Korowal School are already part of the scheme.
But the scheme is not fully national either — only applications made in New South Wales, Victoria, ACT and the Northern Territory can be processed and that is only if the relevant institution has signed up to the scheme.
Tasmania and Queensland are coming on board on November 1, with South Australia and Western Australia to join early next year.
Topics: community-and-society, child-abuse, law-crime-and-justice, royal-commissions, sexual-offences, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia