Page 837 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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MR RAMSAY: I thank Ms Cheyne for the supplementary question. The key purpose of the royal commission’s criminal justice report was to eliminate cultural and inaccurate biases against the credibility of survivors. Here in the ACT we have introduced measures to reduce the trauma of the court process and to ensure that evidence presented to court is not discarded because of inaccurate perceptions about how survivors recount their testimony.
The importance of continually reforming how we treat survivors in court was dramatically underscored with the public sentencing of George Pell. The royal commission proved conclusively that there is no basis for believing that abuse cannot happen at senior levels or be perpetrated by people who purport to be amongst our most trustworthy.
Yet still senior Liberal politicians and conservative media pundits across Australia demonstrated the very biases against survivors that the royal commission documented so thoroughly. It was astounding to see those biases repeated even in the face of a jury finding, and it underscores just how important it is to drive real cultural change.
This government’s legislation on child safety makes no exception for any institution or religion. We will keep demonstrating our support for survivors in reforms to our criminal justice system, in our public commitments, and in our acknowledgement of the collective failures to protect survivors.
This government will keep working to change our culture of responding to survivors, and in every engagement with our community we will demonstrate that they are supported and they are believed.
MS ORR: Minister, what further measures is the government taking to support survivors of child sexual abuse who choose to come forward?
MR RAMSAY: I thank Ms Orr for the supplementary question. The royal commission and the brave survivors who came forward during the process have brought to light failings, and they are entitled to our support. We can expect that more people will come forward as the process of reform continues. Our criminal law reforms will support them to tell their stories in court and hold offenders to account. And we are also providing avenues for them to seek personal redress.
It is critical that survivors can access the right support. Our investment in the national redress scheme is just one example, with over $100,000 going to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre to assist people who are seeking redress. Survivors will have access to legal advice, to counselling and to administrative help working through the redress process.
We reformed our civil laws to ensure that survivors who seek compensation for abuse can do so effectively. Last year we abolished the Ellis defence which had allowed churches in other jurisdictions to avoid paying compensation through legal technicalities. We also abolished all time limits applying to law suits for historic sex abuse.
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