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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 13 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4279 ..
MR STANHOPE (continuing):
a major problem. It is a major problem in the administration of justice. It is a major problem for the police.
I cannot believe that you are taking this attitude to women who find themselves in this situation. I cannot believe that you seek to restructure human nature or restructure the feelings which women have about the fact that they have been raped. They do not wish to expose that fact to the police or other people in positions of authority. That is a fact which you should accept if you have any sensitivity for the issue at all.
It is not asking much to adjust this scheme to allow women who have been raped to report that fact to some other organisation in order to allow them to fit within your scheme. This group of women have a right to be compensated for their injuries and for their trauma. You are seeking to place on them a condition which you know, as a matter of fact, is unacceptable, unobtainable. They will not do it. They will not go to the police. They have made a decision about it. We know it for a fact. You exclude a group of potential victims - rape victims who will not go to the police. It is crass, insensitive and unjust. I cannot fathom the level of your insensitivity on this issue.
Amendment negatived.
MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (3.17 am): I move:
Page 10, line 30, after proposed new section 12, insert the following section:
"12A Exhaustion of workers' compensation remedies
(1) If a criminal injury arises out of or in the course of the primary victim's employment, the victim may not apply for financial assistance until-
(a) an application has been made by the victim, or on the victim's behalf, for workers' compensation under the applicable workers' compensation law; and
(b) either workers' compensation is awarded to the victim, or workers' compensation is refused following any applicable arbitration procedure under that workers' compensation law.
(2) In this section-
workers' compensation law means the Workers' Compensation Act 1951, or any other law applying in the Territory that provides for the payment of compensation for injuries arising out of or in the course of employment.
Note Under s 33 and s 34 of this Act, if a primary victim has received, or is entitled to receive, an amount of workers' compensation in respect of his or her criminal injury, any amount of financial assistance the primary victim might otherwise be awarded under this Act is reduced by that amount. Under s 32 of this Act, if the amount of workers' compensation exceeds the amount of financial
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