A Canberra child abuse survivor has received an apology after her plea for redress was met with governmental delays and unprofessional staff who described her as not "the happiest camper".
Katherine Jackson* penned details of the abuse she survived as a young girl and the resulting trauma in an "invasive" application for redress in 2020.
The national redress scheme acknowledged she was abused but ultimately rejected Ms Jackson's application in 2022 and did not tell her why until last month.
The scheme was set up by the Department of Social Services in 2018 to compensate victims of child sexual abuse who were in the state's care.
In a 1200-word letter seen by The Canberra Times, the department's secretary Ray Griggs apologised for the scheme's sub-par processes and inappropriate language used by staff.
The senior public servant wrote to Ms Jackson who said the whole ordeal had re-traumatised her.
"This was the most horrendous experience and applying for redress blew up my life," Ms Jackson, a former ward of the state, said.
In the lengthy letter sent , Mr Griggs shared her concerns and acknowledged the Department of Social Services "took too long" and the application process fell short of the standard Ms Jackson had "reasonably expected".
"We did not do enough to keep you informed," he said mentioning staff did not send her a statement of reasons despite her enquiries to him and the department.
"I apologise for the time it has taken to provide these to you," he added.
Additionally, the scheme only allows victim-survivors one chance to apply for redress.
Ms Jackson said this implied she couldn't ask for a proper review of the scheme's decision without knowing why she had been found ineligible.
Staff used 'inappropriate language'
The secretary also said the response to Ms Jackson's freedom of information request in 2022, regarding her redress application, was "not adequate".
Ms Jackson told this masthead she had near-zero contact from the redress scheme's staff about the progress of her application. She was "disgusted" by the entire process and wanted to know how the decision to refuse her claim was taken.
Ms Jackson was stunned when she found internal emails and staff chats on Microsoft Teams showing instances where unprofessional language was used to refer to her and her redress application.
The documents with redacted sections also revealed staff discussing how Ms Jackson would probably not be compensated, years before she was provided with any reasons.
"She hasnt been the happiest camper on her checkin calls but there was nothing I could really do to frontrun the ineligible we knew was coming (sic)," a staff member said in September 2021.
'She always has that menacing edge'
One of Ms Jackson's enquiries to Mr Griggs inspired the following correspondence between staff:
"I just dont know why she has to write directly to the secretary, it causes us to drop everyhting (sic)."
"Yeah. Big flex on her part".
"Let me know if you need any help ... its been pretty civil but she always has that menacing edge to her calmness haha (sic)."
"oh no haaha probably because she's a [Ms Jackson's occupation] (sic)."
In one instance, Mr Griggs emailed the deputy secretary saying he needed more information about the progress of her plea to respond to Ms Jackson.
"No I'm happy to respond just wanted to make sure I wasn't entering into a minefield with a blindfold on," he wrote.
Ms Jackson found out her application was rejected by the scheme's independent decision maker because they were satisfied she had been abused but said a government institution was not responsible.
The decision maker said Ms Jackson was in custody of the state but her parents remained her legal guardians.
Mr Griggs wrote he was "extremely disappointed" with staff's language but that they had not been involved in making decisions about redress.
Through another freedom of request in 2021, Ms Jackson asked the department for data showing the breakdown of redress payments and the categories of claim.
Documents released to her showed more than 3600 applicants, who were not state wards and didn't live in a state institution, were found eligible for redress payment.
Mr Griggs' letter offered Ms Jackson a chance to reapply for redress but she said she had "suffered enough".
He said the department had changed their process to ensure all applicants would be notified about a finalised decision and reasons for it at the same time.
The Department of Social Services was approached for comment but a departmental spokesperson said it was not in a position to comment.
A Senate Estimates hearing in June revealed redress scheme staff were one of two teams with the highest number of contractors in the department.
Mr Griggs had then said this was because the nature of the work could be "very confronting".
"There's a time limit to how long people want to spend doing that work, or can, or should spend doing that work," he said.
Parliamentary inquiry into national redress scheme
The victim-survivor said she would give evidence in a parliamentary inquiry into the operation of the national redress scheme on Friday, August under the pseudonym Katherine Jackson.
She hoped the outcome of the inquiry would lead to accountability and change in the way the scheme was administered. She added such schemes should also have external avenues for reviewing decisions.
"I hope that public servants are reminded of service and integrity and people like me don't lose their careers and faith in the political system due to the absolute failures and lack of interest of those in office," Ms Jackson said.
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