AUSTRALIA
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The Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN) represents hundreds of people who were in State and Church Children’s Homes. Its submission to the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, for the up-coming Catholic Church’s “Towards Healing” redress scheme is one of the most critical.
It states that “CLAN feels the Towards Healing process is completely inadequate and unacceptable. At this stage, it is CLAN’s recommendation that the Towards Healing scheme be abolished and that funds be directed to a national reparations and compensation scheme facilitated by a body completely independent of any church, charity or government.”
Its submission gives the lie to much of the claims stated in the “Towards Healing” document. For example, “when an initial complaint or allegation is made to the Professional Standards Office, it is not always referred to the Towards Healing process. In some cases, Care Leavers have been referred straight to the religious order where nothing more than a discussion happens.”
Another criticism, stated in other submissions, concerns the style of the process, evidenced in the statement that “those Care Leavers who are referred to the Towards Healing process have commented that they find the whole thing confusing, overwhelming, and that the initial stages are rushed.”
There is one aspect, common to all compensation schemes that most people would not be aware of, and which should be taken up with the government, as a matter of urgency. The Australian health-care system, Medicare, is funded by the federal government. The Health and Other Services Act 1996 enables Medicare to “recover” 10% of compensation payments over $5,000 from the victim to cover its costs for counseling etc.
As CLAN states, “Either this Act needs to be abolished or Medicare should seek to recover expenses from the organisation paying the compensation, in addition to what they have already paid the Care Leaver.”
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