Abuse Scheme Rejection Alarms Catholics

Daily Mail
March 26, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3012186/Abuse-scheme-rejection-alarms-Catholics.html

The Catholic Church says it is disappointed the federal government has so quickly rejected a national scheme to compensate abuse survivors.

In its response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the church backed a national, fair, compassionate and independent scheme which would be run by the federal government with the participation of state and territory governments.

Francis Sullivan, CEO of the Truth Justice and Healing Council (TJHC), told a national inquiry on Thursday that it was surprising that the Commonwealth had initiated the inquiry and "yet has so quickly discounted itself from one of the most fundamental issues we have to redress".

"You would think that any government that was setting up a Royal Commission of this nature would know that a possible redress scheme would be one option," Mr Sullivan said.

The commission has recommended a single national scheme and done modelling to show it would cost $4.3 billion and cover 65,000 survivors.

In a blunt written submission to the commission, the federal government said such a scheme would be too costly and too complex to implement.

The TJHC represents the leadership of the Catholic Church and religious orders in Australia.

Mr Sullivan said on Thursday the whole church was ashamed of the extent to which abuse happened in its institutions.

Its objective now was to contribute to reform that would give survivors of child sexual abuse easy access to redress based on the same criteria under independently determined conditions.

He said the conversation about a national scheme needed to continue "because as we see it, you've had a response at a level within Commonwealth bureaucracy".

"It will be interesting to know what the current government of the Commonwealth thinks."

He said child sexual abuse was a social issue for Australia which people were trying to address but which also needed to be addressed by governments.

Commission Chair Peter McClellan asked what the council believed was the way forward if the Commonwealth still walks away.

Mr Sullivan said the days of the church investigating itself were over and an independent process was needed.

"If it can't be established within the initiative and motivation of governments, we have to get creative about that."

He said if an independently administered scheme was available to others the church would be open to the conversation but it was "very mindful of the fact that other organisations may not want to align with the Catholic Church given our history".