AUSTRALIA
The Australian
Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
November 21, 2012
VICTIMS advocates have called for the federal government to be centrally involved in administering a sex abuse compensation fund, similar to Ireland’s, even though Attorney-General Nicola Roxon says compensation is not the government’s prime focus.
Helen Last, director of clergy abuse advocates In Good Faith, said compensation was a vexed area because of the arbitrary response of the churches to compensation claims.
She said compensation offers ranged from significantly more than the Catholic Church’s Melbourne Response $75,000 cap to “paltry” amounts of several thousand dollars, while large orders including the Christian Brothers and Good Shepherd Sisters had recently cut their standard payments to $5000 where abuse was committed by brothers and $2000 where it was committed by nuns.
“These figures are an insult and they cause so much despair for the victims,” Ms Last told The Australian. “The victims are walking away from that and saying, ‘You can keep it.’ ”
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