Sexual abuse survivors funds welcomed by ECAJ

 Email this story

Print

1 Comment

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has welcomed the announcement in the Federal budget that $33.4 million will be allocated to establish a national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse that occurred in Commonwealth institutions.

The ECAJ released a statement saying: “Whilst this falls far short of the Royal Commission’s recommendation in September 2016 for a $4.3 billion redress scheme and does not provide for survivors of abuse in State-run, religious or private institutions, the Commonwealth scheme will hopefully set a benchmark that State governments and religious and private institutions will need to match, at a minimum.

The cap on payments of $150,000 is also modest and does not appear to make sufficient allowance for loss of earnings and other economic losses incurred by many survivors as a direct result of the abuse they suffered.

The ECAJ and other Jewish community organisations will need to continue to support survivors in the Jewish community by monitoring the implementation of the Commonwealth scheme and, if necessary, making further representations to the Federal government and other relevant institutions to ensure that they have arrangements in place to settle the material claims of survivors fairly and promptly.”

The Jewish child sexual abuse advocacy group Tzedek said on its Facebook page “It is unfortunately far short of the Royal Commission’s recommendation in September 2016 for a $4.3 billion redress scheme but it is a good beginning. The announcement indicated that survivors abused in Commonwealth institutions will have access to payments up to $150,000. How this affects survivors of institutional abuse in the Jewish community is still unknown. We welcome this commitment and call for the scheme to be established quickly. A lot of survivors are ageing and need this assistance as a matter of priority.”