Child Protection

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:27): My question is to the Attorney-General. Will the Attorney-General outline to the house the actions being taken to address the gap for victims of child sexual abuse receiving compensation and redress?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:27): I am very pleased to answer this question. I thank the member for her question because, in the heartfelt and very considered address she gave to this parliament highlighting her own personal experience as a child, it ought to have brought to the fore for every one of us the significance of the disgraceful circumstances that so many of our South Australians were left in as a result of the exploitation and abuse while in the care of institutions principally run by governments but also of our churches and some of our NGOs.

It may have been in the past, but it is a matter which cannot go unattended. It is true that the former state government acted to provide some redress to some of those victims subsequent to the Mullighan inquiry to which I referred earlier today. A cap was placed on that at $50,000 and, as Attorney-General, I am still processing some of those applications.

However, what we found on coming into office was that the former government had consistently refused to consider a federal redress scheme option to move to provide a comparative and acceptable level of compensation which the royal commission at the national level had identified and on which it had refused to come to the table. Our side of the house had determined that we would go to the table, and we did. I am pleased to say that I met in Sydney with other attorneys-general and the Hon. Mr Dan Tehan, the Minister for Social Services in the federal parliament, and a minister, of course, in the Turnbull government.

Whilst we were late coming to the table as a state, because the previous government had not acted in this space, we did. We went to the table. We indicated our commitment, and we immediately commenced negotiations to identify what were the risks to South Australia and what were the benefits to South Australia and how we might redress this disgraceful abandonment of responsibility for these people. I am pleased to say that that agreement now has been agreed to by the state government—namely, to draft the legislation, to enter the national scheme, to commit to that process.

In short, it proposes a national secretariat which will provide for the receipt and assessment of claims from across Australia from state and non-government agencies, and it will pay up to $180,000 as a redress payment. Any person in South Australia who has benefited under the state scheme will obviously not be able to receive both; that will be an amount that is debited against their entitlement. The state government—this state government—has committed to $146 million being paid into the account at SAicorp, where it will be held for application over the next 10 years for those claims.

We are proud of that. We are very proud of that, and it is time that this issue be resolved. South Australia has joined, and I will do everything I can in the next couple of weeks, before we get to Perth, to encourage Western Australia to sign up, as the last state standing.