MAKE REDRESS (WA) RIGHT Special thanks to Minister Simone McGurk A group of more than 20 Tuart Place participants, staff and Board members were invited to Parliament House on 27 June 2018 to hear Premier Mark McGowan respond to the recommendations of the Royal Commission and announce that WA would join the National Redress Scheme. The Premier also proclaimed the amendments to WA’s civil litigation legislation on child sexual abuse. Tuart Place commends the WA Government for these important achievements. We particularly appreciated Minister Simone McGurk’s acknowledgment of the survivors of sexual, physical and emotional abuse and the secondary harm caused by the Redress WA scheme. In her speech to the Legislative Assembly, Minister McGurk acknowledged the harm caused by Redress WA, and said: “In 2007, the then Labor state government announced a redress scheme called Redress WA to recognise the sexual, physical and emotional harm inflicted upon children who were placed in the care of the state.
Today, I acknowledge that many people were hurt further by Redress WA following a change in government and the previous government’s decision to reduce payments. This was never the original intention of Redress WA. As the state Minister for Child Protection, I apologise for the further hurt and pain this has caused”. It was tremendously heartening for Redress WA survivors and supporters present in the Public Gallery to hear this acknowledgement and apology from the Minister for Child Protection. The Make Redress Right campaign looks forward to working with the State Government towards a full apology and financial compensation to Redress WA survivors for the loss they experienced as a result of the unjustified reduction in payment levels of this scheme. Tune into the Tuart Place YouTube channel at https://youtu.be/lufMOYiwiJU to hear what 23 survivors of the Redress WA scheme have to say.
At Parliament House to hear the WA Government’s response to Royal Commission recommendations:
PHOTO 1: L-R Tuart Place’s Senior Therapist Susy Vaughan, Minister Simone McGurk, Dr Philippa White, Premier Mark McGowan PHOTO 2: L-R: Tuart Place Board member Cevrina Reed, Lee Peters, Minister Simone McGurk, Dale Lynch, Mark Farmer, Premier McGowan, Ann McVeigh, Member for Kalamunda Matthew Hughes, and FACT Chairperson Ron Love
Civil Litigation Update
New sexual abuse laws proclaimed in WA on 1 July 2018 The WA Government has proclaimed changes to civil law that will assist people who were sexually abused as children to obtain proper compensation. If you were sexually abused in WA while under the age of 18 years, these new laws relate to you. Previous time limits that prevented survivors from making claims have been removed. If you have received a redress payment in the past and signed a Deed, you can apply to the Court to have the Deed set aside. 2
In awarding compensation, the Court will look at the severity of your physical and psychological injuries, and how badly your life has been affected. Civil claims are totally separate to the National Redress Scheme and you cannot do both. Civil claims provide another option for sexual abuse survivors who cannot receive a National Redress payment because a prior redress payment puts them ‘over the limit’ for the national scheme.
