In a secret meeting as Victoria’s budget was being announced, the full scale of the historical abuse of children in state care – and its impact on the government’s finances – was being laid bare.
Though much was made of the budget’s flagship announcement of $400 for every public school student, costing $287m, a similar amount will be spent paying victims of institutional care via civil claims and a redress scheme that, until Tuesday, the government had only committed $7.5m to.
One of the people in room, Leonie Sheedy, says the money couldn’t come soon enough.
“At the meeting on Tuesday, when they said they had funded redress, I told them, ‘Great. Now please hurry up and do it before we all cark it,’” the 70-year-old told Guardian Australia.
“We’ve waited long enough. Let’s just get on with it.”
Of the $276m in the budget allocated to care leavers, $165m will go towards redress for victims of historical abuse and neglect in institutional care, while $111.4m will be spent by the government on civil claims costs.
The previous budget also had money set aside for civil claims, totalling $14.9m in 2022–23 and $58.8m in 2023–24.
Sheedy, the chief executive of the Care Leavers of Australia Network and a former ward of the state, said many victims had been forced to take legal action against the government as they wait for redress.
These victims, she said, were either ineligible for the existing national redress scheme, had been rejected or were simply unable to wait for their claim to be processed.
“National redress is taking so long,” she said.
“For care leavers, some of whom were not abused sexually but suffered a lot of cruelty – the horse whips, chains put around their necks, physical abuse – they don’t get much, if anything.”
Others, Sheedy said, have been encouraged by the “huge settlements and payouts” to victims of child sexual abuse in other settings.
She said a state-based redress scheme will play a critical role for victims who are now aged in their 80s and 90s and don’t have don’t have the “health, energy or memory” for civil action.
The creation of scheme was a key promise by the Labor government ahead of the 2022 election, after years of campaigning, alongside an apology that was delivered by the premier, Jacinta Allan, earlier this year.
The government has so far spent $7.5m setting up the redress scheme with the input of victims, and on urgent hardship payments of up to $10,000 for care leavers in exceptional circumstances. Under the scheme, these payments will continue as “advance” redress payments for those terminally or critically ill.
Once established, it will cover the period between 1928 and 1990, in which an estimated 90,000 children were placed in care in Victoria, and it will be administered by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
The minister for children, Lizzie Blandthorn, said the redress scheme was one of the largest in Victoria.
“No amount of money can ever make up for what happened, but we can acknowledge what has happened in the past and support people to address the impacts of abuse and neglect on their lives,” she said.
“We are working as fast as possible to deliver redress and with $165m invested in this budget we will have more to say in the coming months.”
The government has also overseen a $138m redress scheme for 3,500 Victorian mothers whose babies were removed under historical forced adoption practices, and another $155m scheme for victims of the stolen generations. The former provided payments of up to $30,000 and the latter up to $100,000.
Lawyer John Rule from Maurice Blackburn, who has represented many care leavers, said he expects the government will continue having to set aside money to pay out victims of abuse.
“There’s a misconception that this is just an issue for people who are now aged in their 80s and 90s. I absolutely have clients that are that age, who were victims of institutional care, but I have many who are victims of abuse in residential care as recently as 2020,” Rule said.
“This isn’t going away any time soon.”
He said changes made in 2017, which impose a duty of care on Victorian institutions to prevent abuse, will also make it easier to seek compensation.
• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
