Suite 108, 25 Berry Street North Sydney NSW 2060
Phone 9929 5351 Fax 9929 5371
[email protected]
www.wellview.com.au
THE CASE FOR A NATIONAL REDRESS SCHEME
There are moments in the life of a nation when there is a once-only opportunity to advance its people
regardless of their social or economic status. If this opportunity is squandered, the nation and its people
are diminished and such progress may never be achieved.
Australia has reached this moment in respect to the way that it responds to the needs of its abused
citizens, those individuals whose voyages in life were so damaged by institutional sexual abuse in
childhood.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) in its
Redress and Civil Litigation Report made a forceful and persuasive case that justice for victims is deeply
rooted in the establishment of a single National Redress Scheme (NRS). The three elements of this
scheme are:
1. a direct personal response to the survivor by the Institution in which abuse occurred, including
but not limited to a meaningful apology (if desired by the survivor);
2. access to ongoing therapeutic counselling and psychological care; and
3. monetary payment in recognition of the wrong committed and the harm done.
Approximately 60,000 people in Australia are eligible to seek redress. When confronted with this
number it is easy to lose sight of the human faces of these people, most of whom rarely speak about
what they endured as children. Many have waited a lifetime to lay to rest the nightmare of their abuse.
The hidden cost of institutional sexual abuse is often immense. It frequently causes life-long shame,
guilt, depression, anxiety and a fear of intimate relationships. Sometimes the betrayal is so damaging
that victims are unable to sustain relationships, decide not to have children and use alcohol and/or
drugs to blot out the memories of the abuse. Survivors are wounded: both by the abuse and by society
failing to acknowledge the damage done and failing to offer assistance.
Although it is possible for survivors to overcome the many obstacles caused by their abuse and to have
fulfilling lives, most do not have the emotional strength or resources to participate in an adversarial
legal process to achieve justice and to obtain support. Their best hope is the proposed NRS.
Anything other than a single NRS may present victims across Australia with inconsistent and inequitable
outcomes. Under state-based schemes, for example, the seriousness of a victim’s injury and the
assistance available may be ranked according to a state’s commitment or level of interest rather than on
the victims’ needs.
For the sake of fairness, there must be equal access and equal treatment for survivors: that a person
was abused in a financially-struggling club in regional Australia should not be a bar to him or her
achieving redress and reparation.
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Over several years the Royal Commission has unraveled many threads of institutional abuse and the
varying responses to that abuse. It has shocked the nation with revelation after revelation of sexual
crimes against children, committed within a range of state, religious and privately run institutions.
Without a NRS these threads of lives torn apart, will remain unbound within the social fabric of our
nation.
In our view, the national challenge is to deliver justice to abuse victims by implementing a single NRS
before the conclusion of the Royal Commission. Establishing this NRS will deliver more than justice; it
will restore our nation. By supporting the NRS, we the nation’s citizens, can show victims that they are
honoured, respected and worthy of receiving help.
The potential cost to taxpayers of implementing a NRS is comparatively small as there is confidence that
offending institutions will meet their financial obligations. As the Royal Commission’s Redress Report
shows:
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while costs (administration, counseling and psychological care and compensation payments) are
expected to total a little over $4 billion; the cost to all governments spread over a decade are a
little under $1.9 billion (adjusting for governments as funders of last resort); while
non-government-run institutions will meet $2.141 billion in costs; and
the overall expected cost for all governments, assuming a shared role as funders of last resort is
expected to be about $600 million, again spread over 10 years – a comparatively small amount
across all jurisdictions.
We, the undersigned, urge the Federal Government to:
1. establish a NRS along the lines recommended in the Royal Commission’s Redress and Civil
Litigation Report;
2. allow victims ongoing effective counselling and psychological support, which builds on
existing services, and includes an expanded range and number of Medicare-funded services
and other relevant community-based supports; and
3. enable victims to tell the story of their abuse to a person in authority as part of the NRS.
If there is nothing in place that makes a real difference to the lives of survivors when the Royal
Commission closes its doors on 15 December 2017, the nation will have betrayed the trust that survivors
put in the Royal Commission and in our nation.
To quote, in part, Shakespeare’s Brutus in Julius Caesar: “On such a full sea are we now afloat and we
must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” We must seize this moment to establish a
National Redress Scheme.
Signed (2/09/16):
Dr Robert Llewellyn-Jones, Consultant Psychiatrist, Director, Wellview Health, North Sydney
Dr Cathy Kezelman AM, President/Director, Blue Knot Foundation
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Professor Warwick Middleton, Director, Trauma & Dissociation Unit, Belmont Hospital, Brisbane; Chair,
The Cannan Institute
With and on behalf of the following signatories:
Dr Brian Babington, CEO, Families Australia
Dr Karen Baikie, Consultant Clinical Psychologist
Dr Robert Balzer, GP, Sydney
Ms Deborah Banks, Chief Executive Officer, Lou's Place, Sydney
Dr John Bashford, Clinical Haematologist, Medical Director; Wesley Clinic Research Centre Stem Cell
Transplant Programme, Brisbane
Dr Richard Benjamin, Psychiatrist, Member, Blue Knot Foundation National Advisory Panel, Rokeby,
Tasmania
Professor Michael Berk, Alfred Deakin Chair of Psychiatry, Deakin University, Victoria
Mr Steve Betinsky, CEO, Childwise
Professor Sidney Bloch, Emeritus Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne
Mr Andrew Blode, CEO, Jack and Robert Smorgon Foundation, Melbourne
Mr Matthew Bowden, Co-CEO of People with Disability Australia
Ms Alison Brook, National Executive Officer Relationships Australia, on behalf of Federation of
Relationships Australia Organisations
Ms Jackie Burke, Clinical Director, Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia
Dr Jeremy Butler, Psychiatrist, Brisbane
Emeritus Professor Bettina Cass AO, University of New South Wales
Professor David Castle, Chair of Psychiatry at St Vincent’s Health and The University of Melbourne
Rabbi Eli Cohen, President, Rabbinical Council of NSW; Rabbi, Newtown Synagogue, Sydney
Dr Judy Courtin, Lawyer representing victims of institutional sexual Abuse
Professor Kathleen Daly, Professor Kathleen Daly, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith
University
Professor Martin Dorahy, Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury
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Professor Brian Draper, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales
Mr John Ellis, Solicitor, Sydney
Ms Nicola Ellis, Solicitor, Sydney
Dr Jan Ewing, Clinical Neuropsychologist, Clinical Psychologist, Closeburn 4520
Ms Chrissie Foster, Ambassador, Blue Knot Foundation, Melbourne
Mr Anthony Foster, Ambassador, Blue Knot Foundation, Melbourne
Dr Gary Foster, Manager Living Well, Anglicare Southern Queensland
Dr Gary Galambos, Chair, NSW Branch, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
Mr. Chris Gibbs, CEO, Mental Health Professionals Network
Mr Robert Goot AM SC, President, Executive Council of Australian Jewry
Professor Chris Goddard, Visiting Professor in Social Work, University of Hertfordshire
Dr Cassandra Goldie, CEO, Australian Council of Social Services
Professor Brin Grenyer, School of Psychology, Wollongong University and Director, Project Air Strategy,
NSW Dept of Health
Dr Sandra Hacker, AO Psychiatrist (previously Victorian President and national Vice-President, AMA)
Dr Joan Haliburn, Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Drummoyne, NSW
Dr George Halasz, Psychiatrist, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Monash University
Clinical Associate Professor Edwin Harari, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne;
Consultant Psychiatrist, St. Vincent's Hospital Area Mental Health Service, Fitzroy
Mr Jack Heath, CEO, SANE
Professor Malcolm Hopwood, President of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
Mr Craig Hughes-Cashmore, Co-founder and Executive Director, Survivors & Mates Support Network,
Sydney, NSW
Mr Barry Irvine, Chairman, Bega Cheese, Bega, NSW
Reverend Keith Jobberns, National Ministries Director, Australian Baptist Ministries
Rabbi Rafi Kaiserblueth, Rabbi Emanuel Synagogue
Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Rabbi, Emanuel Synagogue
Rabbi Mendel Kastel, CEO, Jewish House
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Ms Mary-Anne Kate, University of New England
Dr Bryan Keon-Cohen AM QC, Melbourne, Vic
Dr Elisabeth Kirkby OAM, Morning Bay, NSW
Dr Anthony Korner, Director, Westmead Psychotherapy Program for Complex Traumatic Disorders,
Sydney Medical School
Ms Helen Last, CEO, In Good Faith Foundation Ltd, Melbourne, Vic
Dr David Leonard AM, Psychiatrist, Melbourne, Vic
Professor Lyn Littlefield OAM, Executive Director, Australian Psychological Society
Dr Johanna Lynch, General Practitioner, Member, Blue Knot Foundation National Advisory Panel
Mr John Malone, Executive Director Aftercare
Professor Sandy McFarlane AO, Professor of Psychiatry, The University of Adelaide
Associate Professor Loyola McLean, Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney
Mr Stuart McMillan, President, Uniting Church in Australia
Mr Shane McNamara, Co-founder and Executive Director, Survivors & Mates Support Network, Sydney,
NSW
Professor Louise Newman AM, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne
Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio, Rabbi Emanuel Synagogue
Dr Nick O’Connor, Psychiatrist, Sydney
Professor Patrick Parkinson, Professor of Law, University of Sydney
Conjoint Professor Carmelle Pesiah, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales
Dr Jan Resnick, Director Amygdala, Member, Blue Knot Foundation National Advisory Panel
Professor Geoff Riley AM, Rural Clinical School of Western Australia (Albany) University of Western
Australia
Ms Carol Ronken, Director of Research and Policy Development, Bravehearts
Dr Louise Roufeil, Executive Manager, Professional Practice, Australian Psychological Society
Ms Kim Ryan, CEO, Australian College of Mental Health Nurses
Associate Professor James Scott, Psychiatrist, University of Queensland
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Dr Michael Salter, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Western Sydney University
Ms Leonie Sheedy, CEO, Care Leavers Australia Network
Clinical Professor John Snowdon, Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Sydney
Dr Sylvia Solinski, Consultant Psychiatrist, Melbourne
Dr Ron Spielman, Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Sydney.
Dr Andrew Staniforth, Psychologist, Canberra
Associate Professor Vladan Starcevic, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Nepean Clinical School,
University of Sydney
Dr Pam Stavropoulos, Head of Research, Blue Knot Foundation
Francis Sullivan, CEO Truth, Justice and Healing Council
Bishop Greg Thompson, Anglican Bishop, Diocese of Newcastle
Dr Deirdre Thompson, Acting CEO and Director of Client Operations, Bravehearts
Ms Pieta Thornton OAM, Director, Victims and Witnesses of Crime Court Support Inc
Professor Bruce Tonge, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Monash University
Professor Julian Trollor, School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales
Dr Joe Tucci, CEO Australian Childhood Foundation
Professor Jane Turner, Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Queensland
Ms Karel Vine, Psychologist, Private Practice, Penrith and Moruya, NSW
Ms Karyn Walsh, CEO Micah Projects Inc. Brisbane, Qld
Professor Garry Walter AM, Professor of Psychiatry, University of Sydney
Mr Peter Wertheim AM, Executive Director, Executive Council of Australian Jewry
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