Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame is calling on the federal government to close a legal loophole that allows paedophiles to quarantine their superannuation from sexual abuse survivors. 

Under the current rules, victims of crime who launch civil action for compensation against their perpetrators cannot access any funds held in the offender's superannuation accounts.

"Paedophiles are able to hide their assets in their super, which should be available to compensate survivors of abuse," she said.

"What this means is that the liability is on the taxpayer to fund the compensation of survivors.

"What needs to change is that paedophiles should be responsible for compensating their victims."

Victims' advocate Howard Brown said the issue came to light in 2017, when the victims of convicted Bega Valley paedophile Maurice Van Ryn discovered they would be unable to access hundreds of thousands of dollars he had in superannuation through a civil compensation claim.

"We found that [Van Ryn] was virtually [penniless] as he had placed all his funds into his superannuation account," Mr Brown said.

"And [Van Ryn] basically said to us: 'Everything I have is in my superannuation account, and you can't touch that.'

"And of course, he was correct – we couldn't."

'It's going to save the taxpayer'

In 2018 then-financial services minister Kelly O'Dwyer promised legislative changes to give victims access to their perpetrators' superannuation for compensation, but the plan stalled.

Adelaide-based lawyer Andrew Carpenter has been pushing for the reform to be introduced since 2020.

"It's going to save the taxpayer, it's going to punish offenders, and it's going to finally be something that compensates survivors," Mr Carpenter said.

Mr Carpenter has joined with the Grace Tame Foundation, established by the 2021 Australian of the Year, as well as Fighters Against Child Abuse Australia and the Carly Ryan Foundation to lobby the new Labor government to introduce superannuation reform.

Labor was asked for comment on this reform while in opposition, but has not made any commitments.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said in a statement: "I have not yet had the opportunity to discuss Ms Tame's proposal with her."

"The government would welcome a discussion on how we can support survivors and the role that each level of government should play," he said.

The Grace Tame Foundation, Fighters Against Childhood Abuse Australia, and the Carly Ryan Foundation have written to the Assistant Treasurer to request a meeting.

'A classic example of systems abuse'

Ms Tame said the legal loophole was another example of a system stacked against victim-survivors of sexual abuse.

"It's really important for people to understand the fundamental power imbalance between survivors and paedophiles," she said.

"Where we seem to keep going wrong is in simplifying it to one between individuals – it isn't.

"And [this is] a classic example of systems abuse that remains unchanged.

"Instead of thinking of it in terms of individual perpetrators and individual victims, it is [actually] individual victims versus an entire machine."

Mr Carpenter said it was not uncommon for convicted perpetrators to dispose of their assets before going to prison.

He said this happened in the case of Adelaide woman Melissa Snelling, whose adoptive father Robert Snelling was jailed in 2019 for sexually abusing her as a child.

"Out of 10 years of doing survivor-victim claims, the case of Melissa Snelling was probably the hardest one I've been involved in," he said.

"That was the most heinous and abhorrent case of child exploitation that I've ever seen."

Mr Carpenter said before Snelling was jailed he attempted to sell his house to his son for $22,000 but was ordered to transfer the house to Melissa as part of the court ruling.

"That [house] was easy to claw back," he said.

"But when people have superannuation, that's something that's almost impossible to claw back.

"And that's something that this change will effectively do."

Ms Snelling said the persistent sexual abuse she suffered as a child had left her with ongoing mental and physical pain that no amount of financial compensation would fix.

"My life is seeing doctors, seeing psychologists, seeing counsellors, having support workers," she said.

"The judge presided over a certain amount and the derelict family home was sold and I was then put in a position to receive some of that money. But it cost me over $100,000 in legal fees.

"How do I keep maintaining financial security, when I've struggled all my life and I haven't had a career and I've got no superannuation to fall back on?"

'Time is of the essence'

Ms Snelling said the current system seemed unfair.

"It is seriously wrong," she said.

"It means they can come out of jail and set themselves back up again.

"Why do they deserve the right to be set back up again when they've given someone a sentence for life?"

Mr Brown said he hoped Anthony Albanese's federal government would consider the reform.

"I would be calling on the government to at least go back through Treasury, look at the discussion paper and the responses that they received to that discussion paper, and then make a decision themselves as to whether they can move forward from the results of that inquiry, or whether they need to call a new inquiry," he said.

"But what I would be saying is that time is of the essence, because unfortunately we don't get to save every victim.

"And if we can get a system in place where we can at least have financial assistance to victims so that they can receive proper treatment, then we are going to lose less victims."

Mr Brown acknowledged that one of the concerns raised in the past was that offenders would leave prison with no savings.

"One of the issues which I understand was a stumbling point for the previous Morrison government was that there was some concern that if we were to deplete a person's superannuation, they would then become dependent upon the government so that then the government would be seen as paying perpetrators a pension," he said.

"I didn't believe that that was a substantive issue, to be honest, because we would not be looking to deplete a person's superannuation.

"But we would be looking for reasonable compensation."

Watch this story on 7.30 on ABC iview.