By Jessica Strutt
West Australian
August 16, 2009
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/5819251/victims-anger-over-reduced-compensation/
he sadness in her eyes says it all and she's not even one of the victims. She is haunted by their accounts.
The stories she has heard are from just a handful of the more than 10,000 victims who have sought a payment under the Redress scheme.
She stands out in the crowd because she is well dressed, while many of the others there show signs they live on struggle street. She approaches like a woman on a mission. A woman who needs to get something off her chest.
"You're a reporter, right? I'm a counsellor and I've been working with some of these people," she says.
"You can't name me because I work for the Government but please make it clear in your story that from a counsellor's perspective these are some of the most shocking stories I have ever heard.
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| The West Australian |
"The things that were done to these people as children were just outright perverted."
She stands in a sea of diversity: one of the 150 protestors who descended on State Parliament this week to protest against the Barnett Government's shock decision last month to slash by almost half the maximum payment under the Redress scheme. In a rare sign of solidarity, Stolen Generation Aboriginals stood side by side with former child migrants and non-indigenous people who spent time as State wards.
They all have at three things in common. They were all victims of abuse in State care, they had hopes built up and then dashed and they feel betrayed that this Government has reneged on a commitment first made by the previous Labor government.
In December 2007, the then premier Alan Carpenter launched the Redress scheme, at the time dubbed the most generous fund of its kind in Australia.
The previous government said that under the $114 million compensation scheme, applicants could get up to $10,000 if there was a reasonable likelihood they were abused in State care and up to $80,000 if they had medical or psychological evidence.
Anyone accepting a payment would be required to sign a release indemnifying the Government against current and further legal claims.
It was boom time in WA - a period of record budget surpluses underpinned by unprecedented mining royalties. The good times looked like they could go on almost forever. Mr Carpenter even acknowledged when announcing the scheme that it was the State's buoyant finances that had enabled the government to set it up.
Applications were slow to take off but by the cut-off date at the end of April, with a new Government at the helm, more than 10,000 had been received.
But three months later, in a huge blow to the thousands of victims of abuse, Community Services Minister Robyn McSweeney revealed the maximum payment under the scheme would fall from $80,000 to be capped at up to $45,000.
The shock news prompted widespread criticism, including from the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Greens, the Opposition and other advocacy groups, who labelled it a betrayal and cruel blow to the State's most vulnerable.
The criticism did not stop there, with members of the State Government's Indigenous Implementation Board and Adults Surviving Child Abuse WA spokeswoman Michelle Stubbs, a member of the Minister's advisory council on child protection, also weighing into the debate.
But this week the steps of Parliament were the scene for the Government to come face to face with the reality of the agonising pain its decision had caused to thousands of victims of abuse.
As Premier Colin Barnett addressed the crowd in a bid to justify the Government's decision to reduce the payment he was heckled and confronted by some of the 150 who had joined the rally.
The frustration of the crowd grew as they listened to politician after politician blame one another for the decision.
Many of the protesters fought back tears as victims yelled out details of the abuse they suffered at the hands of former carers.
But perhaps the defining moment of the rally came when a man, aged in his 50s or 60s, yelled out to the Premier as he finished addressing the audience.
"Hey, Colin Barnett. Have you ever seen a priest coming down and you're an altar boy?" The man then dropped to his knees right in front of him. Before the crowd and rolling TV cameras he shoved a finger in his mouth and imitated a graphic sex act he had been forced to perform on his carer as a boy.
He then yelled out to the Premier that his abuser asked him: "Did you enjoy it?"
"Did you ever see that? You bastards! We were kids."
His behaviour was not that of a man trying to seek attention for the shock value. It appeared more an act of sheer desperation and frustration.
Many of those who applied for an ex-gratia payment under the scheme had hidden their horrific stories for years; some have not told even their families what they endured.
But for most of them Redress represented a chance to have what happened to them finally, even if only symbolically, acknowledged for the first time.
As Mr Carpenter said when he launched the scheme, the money could never make up for what these people had suffered but it could help them come to terms with their past and move on.
And it is true that for many, the decision to open old wounds and put their horrific experiences in writing in an application represented a chance to finally try to get a sense of closure.
Mrs McSweeney has blamed the previous government for the need to reduce the maximum payment, saying it failed to put aside enough money for the fund. She claimed this week that the former minister Sue Ellery was told that more than $200 million would be needed to fund the scheme adequately.
Ms Ellery, who in government ruled out any increase in the amount allocated to Redress, told protesters this week that if Labor were still in government now it would have topped up the fund so payments were not cut.
When addressing the crowd this week, Ms Ellery made a public apology, saying she got the best advice available on how much money needed to be put aside but was sorry if she got the numbers wrong.
The former minister has called on the Government to provide the funding necessary to ensure it honours the original commitment.
But while Mr Barnett has indicated more could be allocated to the fund if required, the Government would keep the $45,000 payment cap.
During the debate the Government has pointed out that the economic climate confronting the State today, largely due to the global financial crisis, is very different to the one Mr Carpenter was in when he launched the scheme.
While the political blame game continues the clock is ticking for the thousands waiting to hear if their applications were successful.
The Government has said final payments could be another two years away.
It is believed there is already at least one case where an elderly applicant has received a letter telling him he would get a payment but he died the next day.
These victims don't care who is at fault for the latest betrayal they have endured.
But they do know that not for the first time they have played a central role in a part of this State's history that most would prefer was not there.
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