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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-08-08 Daily Xml
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Victims of Crime Fund

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:22): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Attorney-General a question in relation to the Victims of Crime Fund.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Members will recall that I asked a question along these lines last week. Today's topic is the same, but the question is different. The balance of the Victims of Crime Fund is forecast to balloon to some $366 million by June 2020. Although the Victims of Crime (Compensation) Amendment Bill introduced last year raised the maximum amount of compensation claimable from $50,000 to $100,000, a large majority of victims are only a few thousand dollars better off under the new scheme.

As noted by the victims' rights commissioner, a victim who is entitled to $12,000 under the previous scheme, for example, now receives between $15,000 and $18,000, not $24,000, as most expected. Almost 1,500 of the 2,074 victims of crime payments since July 2015 have totalled less than $10,000. My questions to the Attorney are:

1. Why has the doubling of the maximum Victims of Crime Fund payout failed to make any meaningful difference to the majority of victims applying for compensation?

2. How many ex gratia payments from the Victims of Crime Fund have been made by the Attorney-General to claimants in the past financial year?

3. How much in total?

The Hon. P. MALINAUSKAS (Minister for Police, Minister for Correctional Services, Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Road Safety) (15:23): I thank the honourable member for his important question on an important subject. Naturally, being a question that is the responsibility of the Attorney-General, who, of course, sits in the other place, I am more than happy to take that question on notice and seek a response back from him as quickly as possible.

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