Page 753 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2016
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In conclusion, I support these changes. I thank the government and the Victims of Crime Commissioner for their work in improving the scheme, and I look forward to the new scheme being implemented so that hopefully it can assist and improve the lives of victims of crime here in the ACT.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Capital Metro, Minister for Health, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Climate Change) (12.17), in reply: I would like to thank members for their support of this bill. This is the most fundamental reform to the victims of crime financial assistance scheme since it was first adopted back in the mid to late 90s. It is an important reform that is designed to reduce the re-traumatisation that can often be associated with the efforts of victims to seek compensation and to seek restoration through the existing scheme.
It recognises that victims of crime face an enormous physical, financial and emotional toll from becoming a victim of crime. And it recognises that we need to do better to improve the support we as a community provide to victims of crime through this scheme.
The reforms mean better case management to support applicants as they progress their applications and receive assistance when they need it. It removes the requirement for them to go to court for simple payments for restoration and for recovery. It avoids the complex legal processes associated with that and it reduces reliance on legal representation and all the costs and effort that that can involve.
It still provides for effective oversight and independent review of decision making, because whilst the new allocations for assistance under this scheme will be undertaken administratively, victims will still have access to external review through the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
As members have noted in their comments, this new scheme will allow for more victims of crime to receive payments for assistance, so that a broader range of victims and a broader range of offending behaviour against victims will be captured. Victims will be able to apply for a maximum total of $50,000 of financial assistance if they are a primary victim and it also provides assistance for relatives of people who die as a result of certain crimes—for example, homicide. For the first time homicide victims who are injured as a result of the crime will also be eligible to apply for assistance.
As members have noted, the scheme is based on very extensive and detailed consultation. It responds to the concerns of many people who were unable to access assistance under the current scheme, including many victims of domestic violence and victims who suffered extremely serious but not necessarily permanent injury. Those types of victims of crime were previously excluded from being able to get assistance under this scheme, and this new bill rectifies that.
Under the new scheme victims who have been injured as a result of any one of a wide range of offences will now be eligible for financial assistance. More victims of domestic violence will be able to access support under the scheme. For example,
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