Child sexual abuse royal commission: Salvation Army review of compensation settlements to focus on 'outliers', commissioner says

By Candice Marcus
ABC News
October 13, 2015

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Salvation Army commissioner Floyd Tidd was recalled to the royal commission.

Abuse victim Brian Cherrie threw rubber snakes at Salvation Army officers as they entered the royal commission.

Victims of sexual abuse at Salvation Army-run children's homes are angry that an internal review of past compensation settlements will only focus on "outliers" and all other claims would only be reopened as part of a national redress scheme.

Commissioner Floyd Tidd, the Salvation Army's southern territory commander, has been recalled to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to clarify the review process.

The commission is examining four Salvation Army-run children's homes in Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria.

Commissioner Tidd has given evidence that 418 past compensation settlements with survivors of sexual and physical abuse at Salvation Army-run children's homes will be reviewed.

He said the review of would identify "outliers and inconsistencies" in payments and would likely be finished by the end of the year.

"The purpose of the review is to identify whether compensation payments made in respect of settled claims were assessed fairly and consistently," Commissioner Tidd said.

"I will expeditiously implement the recommendations of the review, including by making any recommended 'top-up' payments.

"Where, however, claims were assessed fairly and consistently relative to the bulk of other settled claims, they will not be eligible for "re-opening" in the interim period.

"Re-opening such claims during the interim period, in the absence of a defined standard by which to assess the appropriate level of redress, would in my view be contrary to the royal commission's objective of ensuring consistent assessments across claims."

Commissioner Tidd said the the review was designed to assess some claims before a national redress scheme was implemented.

"To be clear, the review I have announced is in respect of the interim period between now and when a national redress scheme may be adopted and will lead to the reopening of claims of only those cases where it appears that the survivors were treated unfairly or inconsistently relative to the bulk of other survivors who have settled their claims with the Salvation Army Southern Territory.

"I am not yet in a position to say [what] Salvation Army Southern Territory's position, with respect of past settled claims, will be if a national redress scheme is not supported and implemented.

"The Salvation Army Southern Territory's position will depend on whether state-based redress schemes are adopted, and if so, their terms."

Commissioner Tidd said claims that settled without the claimant having legal representation would be prioritised.

"Most survivors who reached settlements with the Salvation Army Southern Territory were represented by lawyers and reached settlements that were negotiated on their behalf," he said.

"In those cases, we can generally be confident that survivors' interests were protected and that compensation payments were assessed fairly and consistently relative to the bulk of other settled claims."

He said the review would also consider whether any survivors were disadvantaged by the Salvation Army relying on a technical legal defence such as the Ellis defence, based on a High Court ruling that the Salvation Army cannot be sued, or on statute of limitations and vicarious liability laws.

Commissioner Tidd was questioned by a lawyer for some of the victims, Ian Fehring, about why only outliers would be identified for reopening when the bulk of claims may have been unfairly affected by technical legal defences.

Mr Fehring: Do you accept that there might well be consistency across the settlements which the review is undertaking but that those settlements are not fair, because those defences have been taken and would not be taken today if those claims were now made?

Commissioner Tidd: My response would simply be: this is an internal review based on the cases that we have settled and our ability to then determine and measure against our own internal settlements with all claimants in the 418 cases to assess fairness and consistently in that matter.

He said any new claims would be assessed with reference to guiding principles of the commission's recommendations about redress.

One of the victims who gave evidence to the commission, Brian Cherrie, threw rubber snakes at the feet of Commissioner Tidd and his colleagues as he entered the commission hearing on Tuesday morning.

He said he was angry about the revelation that the review into past compensation settlements would rely on a national redress scheme.

"I'm really angry because the Salvation Army have given evidence that they'll re-look at claims that have been settled for crap money," he said.

"But they've very sneakily said that they'll look at them by the end of the year and they know damn well the royal commission has given the Federal Government until the end of the year to say whether they'll do a federal redress scheme and they know that and the Salvation Army are just playing games.

"This morning I threw snakes at their feet because that's how I feel, that's what I think about the Salvation Army. I think they're a pack of snakes."

Mr Cherrie said he was upset that many victims, who were now elderly, did not have time to keep waiting for an outcome.

"I'm just so angry I know elderly people that have just got absolute crap payments and they can't wait, they've just been waiting for years and years and years to get proper settlements.

"These Salvation Army people should have morals, they're supposed to be Christians they should show morals and they're not showing morals.

"I just feel so sorry for so many elderly victims that they're just putting it off and off and off and they'll continue to do that."