Bill
National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Amendment Bill 2021
passed, as at 2021-09-13. Social Services portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Social Services
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2021-08-26
- second reading — 2021-08-26
- second reading — 2021-08-31
- second reading — 2021-09-01
- second reading — 2021-09-01
- third reading — 2021-09-01
- introduced — 2021-09-01
- second reading — 2021-09-01
- second reading — 2021-09-02
- second reading — 2021-09-02
- third reading — 2021-09-02
- passed — 2021-09-02
- royal assent — 2021-09-13
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2021-08-26.
The bill changes the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse Act 2018 to improve the experience of survivors, as an initial response to the scheme's second-year review.
It introduces several adjustments, including early payments of $10,000, indexation of past payments, more flexible deadlines, removal of a statutory declaration requirement, and an option for instalment payments.
The government has only acted on part of the review's recommendations, and has not yet detailed changes for the remaining proposals.
- The bill would create advance payments of $10,000 for certain applicants, such as those who are terminally ill or in exceptional circumstances.
- It would change how prior payments are counted for redress calculations, indexing them by whole years from the application date rather than the decision date.
- It would allow the acceptance period for a redress offer to be extended after it expires, and align the review period with any such extension.
- It would remove the requirement for a statutory declaration to make an application valid.
- It would let applicants choose to receive their redress payment in instalments instead of a lump sum.
Survivors of institutional child sexual abuse who apply to the National Redress Scheme are primarily affected, along with the agency that administers the scheme.
Sources
em
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frl act