Aboriginal legal groups have criticised the Federal Parliament's decision to pass laws restricting prisoners' access to redress for sexual abuse suffered as a child.

Officers for the royal commission visited every prison in the country during the course of the inquiry and took 10 per cent of roughly 8,000 private submissions from correctional facilities.

"We know how many Aboriginal people are in jail," said the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service's Alister McKeich, who was paid by the Government to help Aboriginal survivors provide submissions from prison.

"So to make a blanket exclusion that prisoners cannot apply is fundamentally affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in far greater rates than non-Aboriginal communities."

About 14 per cent of abuse survivors who contacted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people.

Alister McKeich said there was the potential for thousands of survivors to lose out because of the Federal Government's provision, which prevents prisoners from applying for redress from jail.

"Fundamentally, it's almost a prejudiced exclusion to have that in the bill," he said.

Minister says discretion available in exceptional circumstances

Federal Minister for Social Services Dan Tehan confirmed the laws passed this week to implement the National Redress Scheme prevented prisoners from applying for redress from jail, but said there was a provision for that to be overturned in rare cases such as when a prisoner was terminally ill.

"People in custody will not be able to apply to the Scheme, however the Scheme Operator will have discretion to accept an application from a person in custody if there are exceptional circumstances," Mr Tehan said in a statement.

A departmental submission to the Senate Committee investigating the laws earlier this year said there were "risks associated with the confidentiality of applicants in a closed institutional setting such as prison which may lead to health and safety risks to vulnerable people".

Mr Tehan said the treatment of convicted criminals generally through the Redress Scheme was a matter of considerable discussion and negotiation among the state and territory governments and the Commonwealth.

"People convicted of a serious criminal offence will be eligible for the Redress Scheme after going through a special assessment process.

"The special assessment will consider a number of factors, including advice from the relevant Attorney-General, to ensure providing redress does not bring the Scheme into disrepute or undermine public confidence in the Scheme.

The sex abuse royal commission recommended the redress scheme be implemented hand-in-hand with support services and legal centres, taking into account the need to cover "the particular needs of different groups of survivors, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survivors".

But Mr McKeich said Aboriginal legal services (ALSs) across the country had been denied funding to provide survivors with legal support to access redress.

"It's a huge gap in service delivery," he said.

"For example, in the Northern Territory and the north-west of Australia, north of Queensland, ALSs have interpreters that are vital for those areas.

"It's just yet another obstacle in people being able to access this redress scheme."

Funding shortage

Roxanne Moore, from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, confirmed the organisation had received no funding for this purpose.

"There was money provided during the royal commission nationally, but there has not been any money to provide legal assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to apply for the redress scheme," she said.

"In contrast, ATSILS (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services) nationally will face funding cuts in the forward estimates unless these are overturned."

An image of a classroom at an Aboriginal settlement in Kichela, NSW, in 1959 captures a sanitised view which did not reflect reality. ( Supplied: W Pederson/National Archives of Australia )

Difficult conversations

In a statement, Mr Tehan said the Australian Government had contracted the Knowmore community legal service to provide support for survivors who wanted to access the scheme, and that the service had 'an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Engagement team.'

Knowmore community legal service executive officer, Warren Strange, said almost a quarter of Knowmore's clients identified as Aboriginal and that they had culturally appropriate legal services.

But he agreed that the redress laws passed through the Senate did not align with the royal commission's recommendations, which stipulated the scheme should: "… consider adopting particular communications strategies for people who might be difficult to reach, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (and) people in correctional or detention centres".

"It is what it is in the legislation," he said.

"We will have to try and manage the expectations of prisoners and explain to them what the position is.

"That's going to be some difficult conversations for people who might have anticipated that they might be eligible."

Treaty discussions

It comes as public sessions are being held across Victoria, while the State works to develop a treaty with its Aboriginal residents.

At Ballarat, members of the Aboriginal community me with the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner, Jill Gallagher.

"There were atrocities committed here in this country, here in this state, here in this town of Ballarat," the Commissioner told the audience.

"No one talks about it, we don't get it taught in schools, and no one gets to hear the truth.

"For the healing process for our mob, that needs to happen."

Exposing a national shame

After the meeting, concerns were raised over the laws governing the National Redress Scheme for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

Deb Milera says the redress laws' exclusion of prisoners is offensive. ( ABC Ballarat: Charlotte King )

Narungga woman Deb Milera, who lives and works in Ballarat, said the laws excluding prisoners created obstacles for Aboriginal people: "if you keep putting up barriers, we're never gonna heal".

"We're just going to perpetuate that vicious cycle.

"I find that offensive, because I got a lot of family members that are incarcerated.

"I've got two uncles that have never sat at our Christmas table. They died at early ages because they were removed from my nanna.

"We're only two per cent of the population Australia-wide yet we over-populate all the prisons in every state.

"To then say they can't be compensated because they're incarcerated; it's not fair, it's not just."

Editor's note: The original article has been edited to include the comments of Federal Social Services Minister Dan Tehan. The ABC omitted to approach Mr Tehan for comment for the original article when it should have.