Senate debates

Thursday, 24 June 2021

Questions without Notice

National Redress Scheme

2:49 pm

Photo of Anne RustonAnne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Smith for his question and his ongoing interests in this very, very important issue for many Australians. We know how important redress is to survivors of institutionalised child sex abuse, and that's why I'm very pleased to have been able to release the final report of the two-year anniversary review of the scheme as well as the government's interim response. The report was prepared by an independent reviewer. It outlines how Robyn Kruk believes the scheme can be improved and can provide a better survivor experience. Our interim response also ensures that survivors have as much information as they possibly can when they're making that decision as to whether they wish to pursue redress. So, to ensure that the scheme is operating as it's intended to and in the best interests of survivors, in the recent budget we provided an additional investment of more than $80 million for that purpose. We believe it is absolutely essential that we continue to listen to advocates and survivors, because we want this scheme to be the best possible scheme it can be and, in particular, that it's survivor focused.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to inform the Senate that as part of our commitment we have announced that we'll be providing advance payments of $10,000 as redress for survivors who are older or terminally ill. It's something that we heard was very important to survivors not just because of the financial support that it provides but also as an acknowledgement, saying that we understand what they have been through. But we can't do this alone. We also have to work with the states and territories on the design changes that have been put forward. To date, we have got more than 65,000 sites on board, more than 6½ thousand applications have been finalised and more than half a billion dollars has been provided in redress to survivors of institutional child sex abuse.

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