Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Our women are the most incarcerated women on the planet. I wonder why, after that interjection! Our women have cared for and sustained the oldest living culture on the planet, and we're still a target in this place when people think that we've said something that we haven't. I would have been locked up for that in the street.

While people in prison can now apply to the scheme, some people with some serious criminal convictions may still be barred from accessing redress. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has pointed out that these restrictions could be in breach of the entitlement of survivors to claim redress and they limit the right to an effective remedy. They are also against equality and non-discrimination. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights also noted that victims of violations of human rights within Australia's jurisdiction are entitled to a remedy irrespective of their residency or citizenship status. People who have suffered horrific abuse deserve compensation.

My amendment would allow those non-citizens and non-permanent residents residing in Australia to have access to this scheme. It is critical that the government ensure access to the scheme and safety for survivors. The people applying to this scheme deserve to be supported through this process. Critical to this is ensuring proper funding for vital support services. Services on the ground are currently already flooded with demand, and applications only look to increase, putting further pressure on them. When some barriers to the scheme were removed previously, the case backlog almost doubled in 10 months.

Following the passing of this bill, increased pressures on the system and support services can be expected once again. To be effective and safe, this scheme must be delivered in a way that heals and avoids all risks of retraumatising survivors. This means large increases of funding to both the scheme itself and available support services. This funding of services is essential to ensure that those applying to the scheme are treated with respect, dignity and safety and to ensure the scheme avoids all risks of retraumatising survivors so that it can contribute to healing and justice. This includes increasing resourcing to stolen generations organisations and community controlled healing services; improving access to culturally appropriate and trauma-informed services and interventions; providing trauma-aware healing-informed training for all individuals working across the design and implementation of the scheme, including external organisations and consultants; and carefully regulating and monitoring non-First Nations organisations operating in the space to ensure that they meet quality, cultural and ethical standards. This must be ensured across jurisdictions, including in remote and regional areas where English might not be the first language. These issues are a priority.

My second reading amendment highlights some of these matters. I want the government to stop treating as an afterthought the harm they have caused and continue to inflict. I seek leave to move the second reading amendment standing in my name.

Leave granted.

I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate notes that:

(a) a large proportion of First People applicants to the National Redress Scheme are likely to be Stolen Generations Survivors, and to be effective and safe it is imperative the scheme:

(i) ensures access and safety throughout the process as a priority,

(ii) be treated with the importance and integrity that survivors deserve, and

(iii) be delivered in a way that avoids all risks of re-traumatising survivors; and,

(b) fundamental to achieving these goals is ensuring appropriate support services receive proper, ongoing funding including:

(i) increasing resourcing to ensure proper, ongoing funding to Stolen Generations organisations and First Nations community-controlled healing services,

(ii) ensuring proper, ongoing funding for redress support services, to allow them to provide access to a suite of counselling services, including financial and legal,

(iii) improving access to culturally appropriate and trauma-informed professionals, services and interventions,

(iv) ensuring trauma-aware, healing-informed training for all individuals working across the design and implementation of the scheme, including external organisations and consultants, and

(v) for non-Indigenous organisations operating in the space, providing careful regulation and monitoring to ensure that they meet the quality, cultural and ethical standards required of the scheme's operations; and

(c) the above must be ensured across jurisdictions, including in remote and regional areas where English might not be the first language; and

(d) there is documented evidence that prisoners are more likely to have been victims of child sexual abuse compared with the general population; and

(e) the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has pointed out that restrictions to redress for those with certain serious criminal convictions could be in breach of the entitlement of survivors to claim redress, limit the right to an effective remedy, and be in breach of notions of equality and non-discrimination.