Abuse survivors want findings published

Sky News
August 30, 2015

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/08/30/abuse-survivors-want-findings-published.html

A network for people who were raised in orphanages and children's homes has called on the government to publish without delay recommendations on redress for thousands of abuse survivors.

On Monday the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hand over its findings on how to compensate people who were abused as children while they were in care at government and non-government facilities.

It is not known when the government will publish the recommendations.

The recommendations from the commission are a key outcome for the national inquiry, which will run until the end of 2017.

Commission chair Peter McClellan announced last week the August 31 hand-over to the Attorney General's office.

At the weekend Leonie Sheedy, the executive officer of Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN), said time is running out for many careleavers.

She urged the government to publish the recommendations as 'a matter of urgency'.

'Many care leavers are elderly, in poor health and desperate. As children we suffered physical, psychological, emotional and sexual abuse while in care.

'We were starved, beaten, raped, imprisoned, enslaved, denied access to families and decent healthcare and education,' Ms Sheedy said.

She pointed out that many people were stripped of identity by having their names changed or being referred to by a number rather than a name.

CLAN is calling for a national independent redress scheme.

The federal government indicated in a submission to the commission following the publication of a consultation paper last January that it did not want to support a national scheme, Ms Sheedy said.

'We urge the prime minister Tony Abbott to show leadership on this issue'.

The commission's January consultation paper contained modelling of a $4.3 billion scheme for an estimated 65,000 survivors.

The proposed scheme would be run by the commonwealth and funded by the institutions in which children were mistreated. This would mean churches and states that ran the homes, schools or orphanages would make sizable contributions.

It is likely that Monday's recommendations will again say the independent national scheme is the best option as survivors are reluctant to deal with the bodies that ran the institutions.

In April Mr Abbott in reply to a query from AAP promised a 'strong and comprehensive' response to whatever the royal commission proposed by way of compensation

He said the government supported the royal commission into the 'terrible, terrible problem'.