Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Amendment Bill 2023. This bill introduces legislative amendments to the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Act 2018. These amendments form part of the government's final response to recommendations from the Final Report, Second Year Review of the National Redress Scheme, undertaken by Ms Robyn Kruk AO.

The National Redress Scheme is designed to assist people who've experienced institutional child sexual abuse. It is one of the many significant outcomes of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, finalised in 2017. Over five years, the royal commission heard from more than 16,000 brave people who shared their harrowing experience of sexual abuse that happened when they were in institutions. The submissions of all those people that bravely relived their trauma so that the truth could come to light have allowed for us to be here. Many had never told anyone previously, such was the shame and distress—shame they should never have felt, shame that should have belonged to the perpetrator, not to the survivor-victim.

The average length of time to disclose for women was 20.6 years and for males was 25.6 years. We know many victims never disclose. The longest time to disclose was an elderly man in his 80s, who attended with his adult son. He had been abused as an 11-year-old and had never told anyone; no-one in his family knew. He made his son sit outside.

We know child sexual abuse happens. We know it has happened. We know in all likelihood it is still happening, often in homes but also in trusted institutions, and this bill relates to that latter part. From my work in the homeless sector, I know that the impact of child sexual abuse is multifaceted and long-lasting. Many people experiencing homelessness have a background of being abused as children, and it can be an experience that destabilises them for their entire life. These toxic secrets and the manipulation by perpetrators undermine fundamental family relationships, leading to trust issues and, in some cases, deep rooted personality issues. It can affect a victim-survivor's ability to form relationships, friendships, even collegiate relationships at work. Such trauma and manipulation during early brain development can cause a lifelong developmental deficit and affect mental health. It can affect their attendance at school and their education pathway, which, of course, impact their participation in workforce and career pathways. It can be life limiting and, sadly, as we know, it can be life ending.

Victims-survivors deserve recompense, but there are a number of barriers to that outcome occurring. Delayed disclosure is often used against victims-survivors, undermining their credibility, aimed at destroying their confidence and courage. It is an intimidation tactic. The trauma brain can result in confused memories with some factors appearing larger and more prominent in the memory and others being suppressed or sublimated. They can't remember the colour of the carpet or the curtains, which is used against them, but they can remember and, sadly, they can relive how they felt—panicked, powerless, distressed, vulnerable.

Abuse over a period of time, possibly by multiple perpetrators, makes it difficult for a victim-survivor to name dates and specific instances of what happened when and by whom. Courts demand linear, consistent facts, dates, times, details that can be examined and disputed, but that's not how trauma memory works. And, ultimately, they were a child at the time of this occurring. Their brain may still have been developing. And many have spent years, decades, trying to forget, trying to move on. Reliving it and speaking about it in an adversarial legal process can be traumatising. All in all, they are often not good witnesses in an adversarial court process—easily undermined, intimidated. The powerlessness they felt during the abuse is replicated in the court process in the presence of the perpetrators.

So the National Redress Scheme was set up in 2018, after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, to address just this issue. Its aim is to have a redress scheme that is based on survivor knowledge, focused on minimising further harm and retraumatisation by avoiding that adversarial experience, and provides assistance to people who have survived truly harrowing experiences. Survivors who have experienced child sexual abuse at participating declared organisations, including sporting and educational institutions, can receive a payment of up to $150,000, but also, importantly, access to counselling and psychological care and a direct personal response for historical child sexual abuse where an institution is found responsible or negligent in its care.

The institutions participating in the scheme comprise religious orders and affiliated bodies, schools and education providers, sporting bodies, community clubs and rehabilitation support services, among others. As of November, 496 non-government institutions were taking part in the scheme, covering more than 69,000 sites across the country. It's a really important statement for each of these institutions to take responsibility for past sexual abuse against children. Either you're on the side of the victim-survivor or you're on the side of the perpetrator; there's no middle ground.

More than $1 billion in redress payments have been paid to survivors since the scheme's establishment, in more than 11,000 outcomes. For those who have experienced institutional abuse, the scheme provides acknowledgement and recognition of the suffering they experience and a direct personal response. This provides survivors with a meaningful response and recognition of their suffering and it holds responsible institutions to account. This can be hugely powerful for survivors, as it recognises not just what happened to them in the past but the lifelong impact of institutional child sexual abuse. This, alongside the redress payment and access to counselling services, ensures that the scheme is focused first and foremost on the wellbeing of survivors.

Consistent with this government's policy of ongoing improvement of the scheme, this bill will ultimately support greater access to redress, increase the choices available to survivors, and ensure fairer and more consistent outcomes that acknowledge the enduring impact of child sexual abuse. The review made a total of 38 recommendations, identifying a number of administrative, policy and operational matters that need improvement to ensure the scheme meets its statutory objectives, facilitates greater accessibility and support to survivors, and provides a more trauma informed experience that is responsive to survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

The amendments made by the bill will establish a process to give applicants the option of having their application reassessed if it was finalised with one or more relevant institutions not participating, where that institution subsequently joins the scheme or the government agrees as a funder of last resort. It will allow redress applicants to provided additional information with their request for an internal review and introduce a limited no-worse-off provision so that offers are not reduced on review by a differing interpretation of the application. It will improve the process for applicants with serious criminal convictions so that a special assessment process is only required for a person convicted of unlawful killing, terrorism, sexual offences or where a risk to the integrity of the scheme exists. It will allow incarcerated survivors to apply for redress, because we know that victims-survivors of child sexual abuse are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. It will expand the protected information provisions to enable additional circumstances in which protected information may be disclosed, and it will implement technical amendments to the funder of last resort provisions to correct technical drafting issues to ensure the legislation operates as intended.

This bill will also make minor technical amendments to support the effective operation of the scheme and increase access to the scheme for survivors.

Of the review's 38 recommendations, 29 were supported. A further five were supported in part, and five were not supported. Survivor input into changes in the scheme policy and processes is critically important, and consultation with survivors was front and centre in the review process. There were more than 450 submissions, surveys or consultations that informed the outcomes of the review. These were all contributed by survivors and ensured that their voices were heard in the drafting of these amendments.

Since coming to office, the government has prioritised working closely with states and territories on recommendations, many of which would constitute major changes to the scheme and which would require additional funding from government and non-government institutions. In accordance with the Intergovernmental Agreement on the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse, all state and territory governments were also consulted on the bill, and we've been able to secure agreement to all of the proposed amendments from all state and territory governments.

It's worth noting that, by contrast, the former government received the final report of the second-year review in March 2021 and took no active steps to engage with jurisdictions on the recommendations, whereas our government moved urgently to finalise the response, by holding a redress ministers meeting in October 2022 and subsequently releasing the government response in May 2023, because we understand how important this is to get right and how urgent it is.

This is about supporting people who have endured harrowing experiences as children and ensuring that they get the help and recognition they need. We've all heard the stories of children being abused by people meant to be protecting them, and they are heartbreaking. The anger and sadness we feel when confronted with these stories is why we as a government are so committed to this scheme. Survivors have endured unimaginable pain, so we need to ensure that the systems we put in place to help them are as fair and streamlined as possible. For many, if they have disclosed, they've been disbelieved for decades. We believe them. We need to believe them.

The Department of Social Services will communicate the measures in this bill to survivors, institutions and other key stakeholders so that everyone involved can be ready to utilise the updated scheme. This bill evidences the commitment by all governments to improve access to redress and the survivor experience with the scheme, and it will uphold the legacy of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The measures in the bill build on legislative and non-legislative steps taken to date in response to the review and implement our commitment to survivors to make meaningful improvements in the delivery of the scheme. Redress is about recognising the harm done to people who experienced sexual abuse as children and holding the institutions responsible to account. We take our responsibility to survivors seriously and we will keep pushing to improve access to redress. That's why I'm proud to be part of a government that is pushing forward on this bill and working to support the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. We hear you. We understand. We believe you.

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