The child abuse national redress scheme will be opened up to applicants who are behind bars, after experts criticised its failure to recognise the nexus between profound childhood trauma and offending.
The Australian and state and territory governments on Thursday belatedly released their final response to a damning review of the redress scheme, following delays by successive federal governments.
The response commits to an overhaul of the redress scheme to simplify its processes, ensure more sensitive and appropriate handling of abuse survivors and applications, and expand its eligibility criteria.
The changes remove the current barrier on prisoners applying for redress.
The current rules, which only allow prisoners to apply where the scheme operator deems there to be “exceptional circumstances”, have been frequently criticised by advocacy groups, who say they create classes of deserving and undeserving abuse survivors and fail to recognise the clear connection between long-lasting trauma and criminality.
The March 2021 review, conducted by the respected public servant Robyn Kruk, expressed “significant and immediate concern” about the restrictions.
“The review heard the restrictions on prisoners potentially deny individuals who were the subject of institutional child sexual abuse the opportunity to apply for redress,” Kruk wrote.
“The restrictions are confusing and poorly understood and appear to be deterring eligible applicants from applying. This has a differentially adverse impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survivors.”
The government’s final response accepted the criticism and said it would expand the eligibility criteria.
“This change will give prisoners the choice to apply for redress while in gaol or wait to apply upon release from gaol, making the scheme more trauma informed and survivor focused,” the government’s response to the inquiry says.
“The Australian government is working with state and territory partners to ensure that people in gaol are adequately supported in applying to the scheme and to ensure appropriate survivor privacy and safety.”
It will also remove the current special assessment process designed for applicants with most serious criminal convictions, though it will remain for what the review describes as “particularly serious offences (such as homicide and sexual offences) or where there may be a risk to the integrity of the scheme”.
The changes will also allow former child migrants to make applications, regardless of whether they have citizenship or permanent residency status.
The current scheme prohibits non-citizens or those without permanent residency from applying.
“Former child migrants are a group of survivors known to be currently affected by the citizenship and residency criteria,” the government’s response says.
“All governments have agreed to consider other noncitizen and non-permanent resident groups in relation to this recommendation.”
Advocates largely welcomed the belated response to the review.
The Blue Knot Foundation’s president, Dr Cathy Kezelman, said changes to simplify and streamline the process must be acted upon without delay, and in a way that is informed by survivors.
“It is disturbing that we are five years into a 10-year scheme, and are still making substantive changes, and are only now responding to recommendations from the second-year review,” Kezelman said.
“The enhanced processing for survivors with criminal convictions, or who are incarcerated, acknowledges the possible relationship between the trauma of child sexual abuse and not only revictimisation, but also sometimes perpetration of a range of crimes.”
People with Disability Australia (PWDA) welcomed the changes and said the response was promising. PWDA president Nicole Lee said governments must act quickly to implement the changes.
