Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I think this is probably an appropriate time to remind the chamber of some of the details. I know that senators have raised some points on the detail of this Redress Scheme. I think I need to not only address this point but make it really, really clearly. We have responded many times publicly, but I do want to make clear the position on this point. The royal commission made recommendations to government on elements of the scheme including redress amounts, funder of last resort and counselling. However, the key principle underpinning the royal commission's recommendations was the provision of nationally consistent redress to survivors and that the Commonwealth government had the constitutional power to compel states, territories and non-government institutions to opt into the scheme. This understanding is wrong. The Commonwealth has no power to compel the states and territories or non-government institutions to join any national redress scheme.

So, as a consequence of that, the Commonwealth has had to negotiate all the elements of the scheme, including redress amounts, counselling and implementation. Without such negotiation, there would be no national redress scheme, and survivors would not have the redress which they have waited so long to receive. I think it's really important, because a number of the comments that have been made in this chamber have been premised on the point that basically the Commonwealth has the power to compel. Can I make that very, very clear: the Commonwealth does not have the power to compel the states and territories or non-government institutions to join any scheme. As a result, we, the Commonwealth, have had to negotiate all the elements of the scheme—all the elements of the scheme—including a lot of the detail that you've asked me about. Without such negotiation, we wouldn't have had this National Redress Scheme. It's really important that all senators understand that the Commonwealth does not have the power to compel the states and territories and the non-government institutions.