National abuse redress 'best option'

Daily Mail
September 14, 2015

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-3233322/Abuse-inquiry-calls-national-scheme.html

A national $4.3 billion redress scheme run by the federal government is the best option to provide justice for child abuse survivors, a royal commission says.

In a report published on Monday the child abuse royal commission made final recommendations for a national scheme, to cover compensation and ongoing support for more than 60,000 abuse victims.

Even though its preferred scheme - one administered by the federal government - was resolutely opposed by Canberra earlier in the year, the commission said on Monday it was the best way forward.

Under that scheme, which would be funded by the churches, schools, charities and other government and non-government institutions where children were abused, survivors would be entitled to payments between $10,000 and $200,000.

And if the institutions could not pay, federal and state governments should come up with the money, as funders of last resort so that all survivors were treated equally.

In March, the federal government said it had no role to play as a funder of last resort and it did not have the constitutional power to set up or run a national scheme.

However, on Monday the commission urged Canberra to consider the scheme again and announce a decision before the end of the year.

The next best option, the commission said, was for each state and territory to create its own scheme to cover government and non-government organisations.

Abuse survivors have already rejected this idea.

The commission recommends a scheme be up and running by mid-2017.

On Monday, the chief executive of the Catholic Church's Truth Justice and Healing Council, Francis Sullivan, called on state and territory governments to move quickly to set up a national scheme.

He also told AAP that the suggestion for institutions to bear liability for criminal actions of employees seemed reasonable.

The NSW government has signalled it is willing to talk to other states and the federal government about a national scheme.

Care Leavers Australia Network executive Leonie Sheedy told AAP the 99 recommendations on redress and civil litigation made by the commission were encouraging, because they recognised not only abuse but its terribly long-term legacy.

Recommendations included the expansion of the Medicare system to cover long-term medical and psychological care for child abuse survivors, and that a certain amount of redress money should be put into a trust fund to cover such care.

On the civil litigation front, the commission wants statute of limitations removed in cases of historical child abuse.

It also recommends that if an institution does not provide a suitable entity that can be sued, laws should change to make property trusts liable.

The commission says it is time Australian law accepted vicarious liability so that institutions could not escape being held liable for the crimes committed against children by members, volunteers or employees.