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Lawyer says government ‘missed opportunity’ for sexual abuse survivors
While new changes were recently made to the National Redress Scheme, a lawyer has criticised the federal government for missing an opportunity to ensure that the scheme is aligned with the recommendations from the abuse royal commission.
Naomi Neilson
According to Maurice Blackburn abuse law principal Michelle James, the changes to the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Amendment Bill 2020 focused more on “tinkering around the edges” rather than real, substantial reforms that were needed to ensure sexual abuse survivors could access justice.
While there were some tweaks introduced on Monday, 15 February that will alter the funder of last resort provisions, it only deals with a very small part of what is urgently needed to ensure that the governments step in to become the funder of the last resort, “even if they didn’t have any direct involvement” with the institution.
It’s what the royal commission recommended to ensure that no survivor was left behind, Ms James said, but the government has not as of yet acted to ensure that this is a clear part of any redress scheme moving forward.
“The scheme overwhelmingly still also falls short in so many key areas including on the capped amounts for redress, with the current amounts falling well below the amount recommended by the royal commission,” Ms James said.
“It’s also disappointing that more consideration was not given to the amendments put forward to this week’s bill by Federal labor that may have helped to address some of these issues, including ensuring accountability for institutions even if they have become defunct and calling for governments to act as funders of last resort.”
Ms James said the ongoing second-anniversary review into the National Redress Scheme presented an opportunity for substantive reform and has called on the federal government to take action as part of this to better support survivors.
“The redress scheme has a vital role to play in supporting survivors to seek access to justice, but our current scheme falls well short of what was recommended. We must fix the scheme urgently to ensure it can work as it should for survivors, including ensuring that the scheme stays true to the recommendations,” she said.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
