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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 3037 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

These actions will include the provision of funding for a witness support function within the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The witness support function will be particularly valuable for witnesses such as those who are unfamiliar with the criminal justice system and children or persons with limited English for whom legal terminology and practices may be confusing. The Government has also decided to set aside a small amount of funding for specialised crime scene clean-up, such as the removal of bodily fluids, which will be especially helpful to victims who are attacked in their own homes.

The amendments dealing with financial assistance to victims will limit such assistance by restricting both the purposes for which the assistance can be awarded and the range of victims to whom it can be awarded. The changes should not be seen as a parsimonious approach by this Government to victims. Instead, they should be viewed in the context of a shift in focus from compensation to rehabilitation. This shift will be achieved by directing resources away from direct cash payments and into the provision of rehabilitation services and other forms of practical assistance to victims. Consistent with this change in focus, the title of the legislation will be changed from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1983 to the Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance) Act 1983.

Under the amendments financial assistance will be available to those persons, referred to as "primary victims", against whom a violent crime has been committed or who are injured while assisting the police. Financial assistance will also be available to persons, referred to as "related victims", who are the relatives or loved ones of primary victims who die from their injuries. Except in cases where the victim dies or is so severely injured that rehabilitation is not possible, financial assistance will be limited to reimbursing the applicant for expenses associated with the injury and making the application and for lost earnings. As is the case under the current Act, an award of financial assistance cannot cover an applicant's legal costs.

The amendments recognise that in exceptional cases significant rehabilitation is not achievable. For that reason, the amendments provide for special assistance by way of a payment of $30,000, to be awarded to primary victims who sustain extremely severe and permanent injuries, whether physical or psychological, which greatly diminish their quality of life, or whose injury is the loss of a foetus. The related victims of a primary victim who has died from his or her injuries will also be entitled to an award of special assistance which will be shared between all the related victims covered by the application. Special assistance can be awarded in addition to financial assistance for expenses and lost earnings. Based on an analysis of the types and severity of injuries for which compensation has been claimed and awarded under the current legislation, it is expected that in a typical year awards of special assistance would be made only in about 20 to 30 cases at the most.

Finally, persons whose property is damaged while they are assisting the police will be eligible for financial assistance to reimburse them for the costs arising from the damage. This category of applicant is to be known as "eligible property owners". No award of financial assistance can be made in respect of primary victims who were committing a serious offence when they were injured.

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