Child abuse claims should face no time limits in Queensland, activist urges

By Lexy Hamilton-Smith
ABC News
May 10, 2016

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-10/child-abuse-claims-should-face-no-time-limits-hetty-johnston/7401288

Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston speaks to Colin, a child abuse survivor.

Time limits on sexual abuse survivors lodging legal claims are archaic, unfair and must be repealed, the Queensland Government has been told.

Currently under Queensland law, a victim must take civil action by the age of 21 or lose all effective legal rights to compensation.

Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts said New South Wales and Victoria had already removed legal time limits.

"This piece of legislation is archaic," she said.

"It steals the rights of children and people who have been victims of crime.

"It does not make any sense at all and it needs to disappear."

Ms Johnston joined more than 100 other campaigners at a forum held at Queensland's parliamentary annexe on Tuesday night.

The Australian Centre for Health Law Research supports the campaign.

Spokesman Professor Ben Mathews said there was a compelling case to amend the statutes of limitation so survivors could access civil courts to lodge compensation claims.

"This is fundamentally a question of access to justice," he said.

Last September, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended all state and territories remove the time limit defence.

Victoria and New South Wales are the only states to have done so.

One survivor, who goes by the name of Colin, said he was abused as a teenager by notorious paedophile Kevin Lynch at St Paul's School at Bald Hills in northern Brisbane between 1985 and 1989.

Colin urged Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath to act immediately to repeal time limits.

"It means the world just to have it acknowledged that it does take a long time for most victims to even recognise that they were harmed, and that they have the right to seek compensation even after 20 years or more," he said.

"To acknowledge that wrong was done and to have the right to justice — it would restore our dignity."

Ms D'Ath's office has been contacted for comment.