Judy Courtin and Chris Atmore
The Guardian 2-9-2018
A man, sexually assaulted in the 1970s at Melbourne’s Trinity Grammar School, recently received $500,000 in compensation. This prompted the elite private school to opt into the national redress scheme for victims of institutional child sex abuse.
At face value, Trinity, along with other institutions joining the national scheme, has put the interests of victims and survivors of institutional child sex crimes, above and beyond its own.
But, this disguises a much more disquieting reality.
The redress scheme we have now is one that re-traumatises many victims and is a shamefully adulterated version of what was recommended by our royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
First, [...
Second ...
Third, ... ]
This makes sense.
The royal commission correctly found that while child sexual abuse can have multiple, complex and profound impacts, such impacts may differ by individual and can change over time.
The severity of the sexual abuse and the severity of the impacts must be considered and determined separately. The national redress scheme, though, arrogantly and dangerously disregards these critical distinctions. How one victim experiences the trauma of assault may be different in degree from the impact on another, and the onus should be on the entity responsible to bear that specific burden.
Instead, [...
This assessment framework does not reflect survivors’ experiences.
For example ...
Such a highly flawed assessment framework is itself shocking and profoundly unjust. But ...
Courageous victims of institutional child sex crimes are finally breaking decades of insidious silence imposed upon them by paedophiles and their offending institutions. For our own governments to now introduce gagging clauses in legislation supposedly designed to address the profound injustices of the past, is repugnant and inexcusable.
The national redress scheme in its current form is unjust and damaging. To once again favour the assets of wealthy institutions over and above the welfare of victims of child sex crimes, is regressive and profoundly troubling.
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