AUSTRALIA
The Guardian
Joshua Robertson
@jrojourno
Monday 7 November 2016
A child abuse victim named by the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, as a friend and key inspiration for her government’s push to end time limits on civil claims has attacked her proposed legislation as a betrayal of many victims.
Allan Allaway says he is “absolutely livid” the the bill, which is due to be voted on in parliament on Tuesday, excludes survivors of physical and psychological abuse.
When introducing the bill to parliament in August, Palaszczuk singled out Allaway for thanks and acknowledged his advocacy, describing him as “a friend for many years and whose personal stories have touched my life”.
But Allaway, 76, who suffered serious physical abuse at Neerkol orphanage near Rockhampton after being taken from his mother as a baby, said the legislation abandoned him and thousands of other victims because their abuse was not sexual.
The bill would retrospectively abolish the need for victims of institutional child sexual abuse to file lawsuits by the age of 21.
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