Labor calls on the Government to release National Redress Scheme review

Linda Burney addresses the Federation Chamber - Monday, 21 June 2021

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Most importantly, today I want to speak about the redress scheme, something that is fundamental to the work that we do in parliament and an enormously important Labor legacy. One of the major programs the Department of Social Services has been the administrator of is the National Redress Scheme. It follows the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse and the national apology to survivors. This nation made a commitment to deliver redress—redress that is timely, redress that does not retraumatise, redress that survivors can have confidence in.

The royal commission estimated that 60,000 survivors would be eligible for redress. As of 26 March 2021, three years after the Senate commenced, only 5,266 applications have been finalised. It is clear that too many survivors have been left waiting or are missing out altogether. Too many applications remain in limbo as institutions named in applications for redress refuse to do the right thing and join the scheme. Some elderly or terminally ill survivors have died without receiving redress and survivors are seeing their payments being chipped away by a low cap, the indexation of prior payments and being pushed into the costly and lengthy court systems.

In February Labor moved a suite of amendments to get the scheme more effectively delivering for survivors, to collect contributions from institutions refusing to join the scheme, for governments to act as funders of last resort, for an early payment scheme and to lift the cap on payments to reshape the assessment framework.

My final question to the government is: will the government commit to these amendments to get the scheme back on track, and when will it release its legislated two-year review?

LINDA BURNEY

SPEECH - MONDAY, 21 JUNE 2021