Redress scheme for sexual abuse victims above party politics

By Melissa Cunningham
Courier
June 29, 2016

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/3999116/victim-redress-urgent/

National party candidate for Ballarat Paul Tatchell is pushing for national redress for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to be implemented.

National party candidate and clergy abuse survivor Paul Tatchell says lives will continue to be at risk until a redress scheme for all victims of childhood sexual abuse is implemented.

A recommendation from the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said national redress for survivors should be fast-tracked by the federal government as a matter of urgency.

Redress for survivors is above party politics, Mr Tatchell said. 

“We have a directive from a Royal Commission but we are putting it through a bureaucratic and political process which to me shows contempt for people suffering,” he said.“It’s putting politics before people.”

While Labor has pledged $33 million to establish a national redress scheme, the federal government said a single scheme would take too long to complete. Instead it is pushing for a national framework of consistent principles which would underpin redress schemes run by states and territories. Mr Tatchell said he couldn’t support the Coalition’s stance.

“The saddest thing is they didn’t deal with it and preferred to use it as a political football instead,” he said. “People are killing themselves. They need help now. You really can’t put it any rawer than that.”The trauma of childhood sexual abuse is a pain Mr Tatchell knows all too well. But he isn’t doing this for himself. 

“I understand the humility and the pain,” he said. “But none of this has ever been about me and nor should it be. I’m doing it for all the ones out there suffering.. who have had to struggle all their lives. For the ones who put their souls on the line at the commission and the ones who couldn’t. They need to be given hope that there is way out of the pain.”

Mr Tatchell told the commission in May last year he was inconsolable after he was raped by disgraced Christian brother Edward Dowlan while a student at St Patrick’s College. The headmaster at the time, Brother Paul Nangle locked him in a cupboard after he was abused. He said the scheme must be run at a national level to ensure equal redress for survivors regardless of where they were abused.

“We need to avoid state bureaucracy, let’s fix it, let’s get perpetrators to pay and let’s get confidence back into to Ballarat,” he said. CASA: 5320 3933 or free call 24 hours 1800 806 292. Lifeline: 13 11 14