Catholic Church signs up for national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse

Updated May 30, 2018 16:57:04

Victims of institutional child sexual abuse are one step closer to receiving compensation, after the Catholic Church announced it would sign up to the national redress scheme.

Key points:

Catholic Church is the first non-government institution to opt in to the national scheme
All states and territories, except for WA, have signed up to the scheme
The royal commission found 62 per cent of victims who reported abuse in a religious institution were from Catholic-managed institutions

In a major step forward, the Church has confirmed it will enter the national scheme, despite its earlier misgivings, becoming the first non-government institution to opt in.

The church's governing bodies, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) and Catholic Religious Australia, released a statement saying they were keen to participate "to limit future trauma for survivors of abuse in obtaining redress from the Church".

"We support the royal commission's recommendation for a national redress scheme, administered by the Commonwealth, and we are keen to participate in it," ACBC president Archbishop Mark Coleridge said in the statement.

"Survivors deserve justice and healing and many have bravely come forward to tell their stories."

Archbishop Coleridge said given the diverse structure of the Church, it would establish a "simple and cost-effective" agency to respond to all of the compensation claims.

"It's been a long time in the making, and that's one of the reasons we've been a little slower on this than we would've wished to be," he told the ABC's PM program.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard evidence from 2,500 people who had been abused in Catholic-run institutions. This was 62 per cent of all survivors who reported abuse in a religious institution.

A bar graph shows an overwhelming proportion of survivors within religious institutions were from Catholic organisations.

Infographic: A graph from the final child sex abuse royal commission report shows the spread of complaints from survivors in each religious institution. (Supplied: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse executive summary)

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan, who is overseeing the scheme's rollout, described today's announcement as "incredibly significant" and indicated it would pave the way for other non-government institutions to come on board.

"Today shows remorse, it shows [the Catholic Church] are prepared to take responsibility and it shows they want to offer redress to those survivors," he said.

"I expect to announce as early as tomorrow more institutions coming on board.

"There is no doubt now that we are reaching the point where we will have a national redress scheme which the overwhelming majority of survivors will be able to access."

He also applauded the Church's decision to create a single agency for survivors and said it was something he was encouraging other larger institutions, such as the Anglican Church, to consider.

All states and territories, except Western Australia, have signed up to the scheme, which would offer victims up to $150,000 in compensation as well as counselling.

Mr Tehan said he had constructive talks with the WA Government and was confident it would opt into the scheme by its scheduled start date of July 1.

Topics: government-and-politics, catholic, community-and-society, children, law-crime-and-justice, sexual-offences, australia

First posted May 30, 2018 15:29:14

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