Parliamentary committee says scheme ‘may never be accepted by survivors’ unless significant changes are made

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Institutions that refuse to sign up to the national redress scheme for child sexual abuse victims should be penalised and have their charity status revoked, a parliamentary committee has found.

The redress scheme “may never be properly accepted by survivors as a fair scheme” unless significant changes were made, the damning report said.

The five-year royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse made 74 recommendations on how a national redress scheme should operate. The government has accepted most of them, but not all. The parliamentary committee was tasked with examining how the recommendations were being rolled out, and the response to the redress legislation from survivors.

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Survivors have long been critical of the government for capping redress payments at $150,000, despite the royal commission recommending a $200,000 cap. The legislation also caps counselling at $5,000 per person, and will require any abuse survivor sentenced to five or more years imprisonment to go through a special assessment process. The royal commission did not recommend that those with a criminal history should be excluded from redress.

Survivor advocacy groups such as the Care Leavers Australasia Network (Clan) have repeatedly called for the charity status of institutions where abuse occurred to be revoked.

The joint committee report found: “Institutions that refuse to recognise their role in the abuses that occurred and to accept responsibility for their actions should be subject to clear penalties, which could include the suspension of tax concessions and the withdrawal of their charitable status”.

The chief executive of Clan, Leonie Sheedy, said her members were in unanimous agreement with the recommendation.

“It should have happened years ago,” she said. “Prime minister Scott Morrison, how about you hold the churches and charities to account for crimes committed against children?”

The chair of the committee, the senator Derryn Hinch, wrote that it was concerned by evidence that institutions were refusing to engage in genuine negotiations during common law settlements where the amount sought by the survivor was more than what would be offered under the national redress scheme.

“The committee expresses its deep dissatisfaction with institutions that may be using the redress scheme as leverage in common law negotiations,” he wrote.

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The committee said a complaints mechanism should be introduced to oversee allegations of misconduct by lawyers acting on behalf of institutions. The report acknowledged that remedying the disparities between the redress scheme and the recommendations of the royal commission would require substantive legislative change, as well as agreement from state and territory governments.

It described these as significant barriers, but found the government should not view them as insurmountable.

“The committee has concluded that without legislative change the scheme may never be properly accepted by survivors as a fair scheme and a real alternative to litigation,” the report said.

“The report has found that, as it currently operates, the redress scheme is at serious risk of not delivering on its objective of providing justice to survivors.”

The committee also recommended that federal, state and territory governments consider allowing all non-citizens and non-permanent residents access to redress, including former child migrants.

Dr Judy Courtin, a lawyer and advocate representing victims of institutional child abuse, praised the report but said it fell short in key areas. The report urges the government to reconsider the practice of indexing prior payments made by institutions to victims.

“The wording of the report should be stronger and needs to firmly tell the government to do away with indexing altogether,” she said. The report’s call for the legislation to “more closely reflect” the royal commission recommendations was also too weak, she said.

“The committee should have made it clear that the royal commission’s findings must be adopted in full. Those recommendations were based on evidence, all the experts worked it out, and these silly buggers [in government] have just thrown aspects of the expert findings out.”

Courtin said she was disappointed the committee did not recommend institutions be forced to make public all their guidelines and policies around paying abuse victims.

“The other thing not in this committee report is calling for funding for counselling of family members of victims,” she said. “They must have funding as the royal commission recommended.”