The Turnbull government will reconsider its plan to bar sexual abuse survivors with serious criminal histories from accessing the national redress scheme amid mounting pressure from legal and mental health experts.

The social services minister, Dan Tehan, said the issue would be “on the table” when the federal government meets with state and territory attorneys general next month, and that they would consider giving exemptions to those who have demonstrated rehabilitation.

“There is a possibility we could do it on a case by case basis, look at it that way,” he told ABC radio on Monday . “But some people have committed crimes that are so heinous that it doesn’t warrant that they should be able to access the scheme.”

The proposal to prevent survivors convicted of sex crimes or sentenced to five or more years in prison from accessing the $4bnscheme has been widely criticised.

Lawyers, mental health workers and churches have told a Senate inquiry into the redress scheme legislation they strongly oppose the plan to exclude survivors with criminal histories. Many fear it would create classes of “deserving” and “undeserving” survivors.

In its submission, the Law Council of Australia said the proposal could potentially exclude tens of thousands of survivors from accessing compensation “given the strong established connection between experiencing child sexual abuse and offending in later life”. It also said it was concerned such an exclusion could indirectly cause “racial discrimination” given it would disproportionately affect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.



Ten per cent of the survivors interviewed by the child sexual abuse royal commission were in prison at the time. The royal commission, which recommended the creation of a national redress scheme, did not recommend the scheme exclude those with criminal convictions.

The Senate inquiry is due to report its findings on March 13.