2018-05-23
Lidia Thorpe - Speech in Parliament: I rise to speak on the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse (Commonwealth Powers) Bill 2018. The Greens are pleased that we have finally arrived at this point. The road to redress has been, and continues to be, a long and traumatic journey for victims and survivors of institutional child abuse.
The bill will refer powers to the commonwealth Parliament to enable Victoria’s participation in a long-overdue national redress scheme. The national redress scheme will in turn implement a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse. The intent of the national scheme is to provide for a number of elements of redress, including: access to counselling; a personal response — for example, an apology from a responsible institution; and a monetary payment. Monetary payments will be capped at $150 000, 25 per cent less than the amount recommended by the royal commission, and the Greens do not support that decision.
Notwithstanding this, the Greens welcome this bill and we commend the Victorian government’s decision to join the national scheme. My Greens colleagues around the country strongly advocate for a national redress scheme that provides compassionate, readily available redress to all victims and survivors of child abuse in institutional contexts.
Clearly this bill represents one step in what has been a very drawn-out and complex process. But it is important to note that the establishment of a national redress scheme does not represent a conclusion of the redress process by any means. While we commend the government on this particular bill, there is so much more to be done in Victoria, and progress has been painfully slow on many fronts. The national scheme will only partly fulfil the Victorian government’s Betrayal of Trust obligations, and there are wider redress issues to be addressed in this state, including the expungement of historical criminal records for wards of the state and a formal apology to the care leavers affected.
We will have more to say on this bill in the other place in due course, but at this point I commend the bill to the house.