Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission: Care Leavers Australia Network Wants Own Compensation Scheme for Victims

By Jayne Margetts
ABC News
March 27, 2015

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-27/royal-commission-care-leavers-want-own-compensation-scheme/6353004

A group representing children who were held in out-of-home care has told an inquiry they should be entitled to a separate compensation scheme.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is hearing submissions from nearly 40 government and non-government organisations about a national redress scheme for survivors.

Leonie Sheedy from the Care Leavers Australia Network said all forms of abuse should be recognised, not just sexual abuse.

"It is our view that the care leavers' experience is so unique that it requires its own redress scheme," she said.

"The time has come for the perpetrators and enablers of this abuse to pay for their crimes.

"Care leavers are entitled to redress for the loss of their childhoods, the loss of their families and the misery they have continued to endure."

Ms Sheedy said governments and other organisations that provided out-of-home care including children's homes, orphanages and foster carers should contribute to the national scheme but should have no say in how the redress is managed.

"They [the State Government] were our legal guardians when we were children and turned a blind eye to decades of abuse and cruelty occurring in the institutions they licensed."

Ms Sheedy said there should also be financial assistance to help those who left institutions, to find their parents and siblings or the graves of their parents or siblings.

She completed her submissions with applause from the public gallery.

Also during the hearing, a group representing the Stolen Generations said victims of child sexual abuse should not have to prove they were abused in order to receive compensation.

John Dommett from the Stolen Generations Alliance told the commission there was already enough documented evidence of institutional abuse and that being forced to prove it would be too traumatising for victims.

"So we would say that if you can prove you were there, then it would be an assumption that some sort of abuse had occurred," he said.

Compensation 'would close down volunteer organisations'

In its submission to the commission, the Law Council of Australia said it supported a national redress scheme for survivors of institutional child abuse.

Duncan Connell from the Law Council said the Federal Government should bear responsibility for compensation, not the institutions where the abuse occurred.

"Many institutions have since closed or operate in a different form now and lack the capacity or the ability to provide redress," he said.

"Potentially large numbers of survivors would miss out on redress if institutions were to bear sole responsibility.

"The Commonwealth should be a funder of last resort to ensure that survivors of abuse in institutional settings can obtain redress regardless of whether the institution continues to exist or is solvent or impecunious."

The Federal Government has rejected the idea of a national redress scheme saying it would be too expensive and time consuming to implement.

Scouts Australia told the Royal Commission volunteer organisations would close if they were forced to pay compensation for historic cases of child sexual abuse.

The Scout movement also supports a national redress scheme but the organisation's Christopher Bates said financial payments should be set at a level that was affordable.

"If volunteer organisations are made to be liable for new levels of compensation for historic cases it could be at a significant cost to the community today," he said.

"Volunteer organisations may close down or curtail the programs they offer.

"The question is should the provision of such retrospective compensation be at the expense of the program delivery to future generations. It is a delicate calculation to discuss."