Commonwealth Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Bill 2017
The Law Council welcomes the opportunity to provide this submission to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee regarding the proposed measures contained in the Commonwealth Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Bill 2017 (the Bill).
The Bill seeks to give effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse (Royal Commission) by establishing a national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse (Scheme).
The Law Council welcomes the introduction of the Bill and the recent announcement by the Prime Minister that a national apology will be issued to survivors before the end of the year. The Law Council has long supported the establishment of a national redress scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.1
In the view of the Law Council, the Scheme should be guided by the following principles, namely it must:
- provide a fair, expeditious and transparent process for responding to claims;
- be simple and clear for survivors and their families;
- not create unnecessary barriers for survivors;
- have safeguards to ensure that it does not become mechanistic and undermine the efficacy of any pastoral response the survivor may be seeking; and
- not impede any other legal rights enjoyed by survivors, including civil justice mechanisms.
You can read the full submission below.