Victims of Crime Fund

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (15:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Attorney-General regarding the Victims of Crime Fund.

Leave granted.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: Last month, The Advertiser reported that the Victims of Crime Fund had grown to $200 million, up from $196 million in 2021-22. As the Attorney-General would be aware, victims can incur various expenses, including medical, psychological and funeral, as well as travel-related expenses to attend court, just to name a few. In this article, Ron Lillecrapp, brother of victim Joanne Lillecrapp, said it should cover travel and accommodation expenses for victims and families travelling to Adelaide to attend court. Julie Kelbin, whose son Jack died in a one-punch incident, said the travel and accommodation support was vital.

My question to the minister is: will the minister consider making necessary changes to allow the utilisation of the Victims of Crime Fund to compensate applicable victims for their travel and accommodation expenses to attend court?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:29): I thank the honourable member for her question. The Victims of Crime Fund is a very important fund that funds not just victims of crime directly and individually but services and supports generally for victims of crime. I am looking through, and I've got the figure somewhere I think, but for the last reporting period I am pretty sure—and I am happy to correct the record if it's wrong—there was more expended out of the fund than came into it; that is, that there was more spent from the fund in that year than was paid into the fund, primarily by victims of crime levies.

I think there was an overall slight increase in the balance due to interest on investments from the fund, but on the year I am pretty sure more went out than came in. There are sometimes very substantial payments that are made from the fund. For example, in 2017-18 $146.4 million was set aside from the Victims of Crime Fund to meet costs for the participation in the National Redress Scheme in response to institutional child sex abuse. Since then, even though just under $150 million was set aside, due to a higher than anticipated number of redress applications there has been a further $25 million provided from the fund.

While there is a significant balance in the fund there are big one-off hits that come occasionally, as we have seen in relation to the National Redress Scheme. In addition, as I said, there are very substantial direct payments to individual victims of crime, but it also funds numerous special services focused on supporting victims of crime. We are always open to see if there is anything we can do to increase supports to victims of crime. The Victims of Crime Fund was not set up and has not been intended to be the primary avenue, necessarily, for victims of crime but a funder of last resort for victims of crime.

As I said, it funds other individual specialty services: for example, funding from the Victims of Crime Fund includes supporting victims of domestic and family violence to navigate the court system; funding extended the Domestic Violence Crisis Line to a 24/7 crisis line; it provides rape and sexual assault services, including in Mount Gambier, Berri and Whyalla; it contributes to an on-call allowance for medical officers to conduct after-hours forensic medical services; it maintains a register of victims and next of kin, where the defendant is mentally ill, to be notified of key information affecting them, including court decisions relating to the defendant; it provides trauma informed counselling to victims of crime; and it provides support to co-victims of homicide.

So there are many areas that the Victims of Crime Fund services victims in relation to individual payments. The Victims of Crime Act sets out that the purpose of payments is in order to advance the interests of victims of crime, to help victims recover from the effects of crime and to assist in the prevention of crime, amongst other things.

As I said, there was a small increase in the total amount in the fund from the previous reporting period to this one due to interest earned on the amount that is in the fund, but more went out of the fund than came in in that year. Most of the money that comes into the fund is accumulated through the victims of crime levy, appropriations from Treasury, confiscation of profits and assets through the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and amounts paid by offenders for compensation through the Fines Enforcement and Recovery Unit.

Individual compensation is made to victims of crime but also payments, as I said, as part of the National Redress Scheme. As the honourable member indicated, the balance of the Victims of Crime Fund as at 31 January was a bit over $200 million, I am informed—$207.9 million.