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Event Redress WA (2008 - 2011)
State of Western Australia
Redress WA Newsletter 7, 14 September 2012, courtesy of Redress WA.
Details
- From
- 2008
- To
- 2011
- Categories
- Project
Summary
The Redress WA scheme ran from 2008 to 31 December 2011. In its 2010-11 Annual Report, the Department for Communities described the scheme:
Redress WA was established in 2008 as a finite scheme to acknowledge and apologise to adults who, as children, were abused and/or neglected while they were in the care of the state. Redress WA was based on four pillars of support: an opportunity to make a police referral; a personal apology from the Premier and Minister for Community Services; provision of support and counselling services; and ex gratia payments. Four broad levels of ex gratia payments were offered, ranging from a minimum of $5000 to a maximum of $45000.
The four levels of payment were published in the Redress WA Guidelines on 18 May 2011:
- Level 1: moderate abuse or neglect
- Level 2: serious abuse or neglect with some ongoing symptoms and disabilities
- Level 3: severe abuse or neglect with ongoing symptoms and disabilities
- Level 4: very severe abuse or neglect with ongoing symptoms and disabilities
Details
On 14 August 2012, in answer to questions put to her in the Legislative Council, the Minister for Community Services provided the following overview of the Redress WA Scheme:
- 5,212 payments totaling $117,740,167 were made from 5,225 offers
- 20 Redress WA claims were not finalised because: 9 applicants could not be contacted, 7 cases were due to the need to locate beneficiaries of deceased applicants, and 4 offers were rejected ($146,797 has gone to unclaimed monies)
- 859 Level 1 payments were made, from 866 offers
- 1,813 Level 2 payments were made, from 1,818 offers
- 1,477 Level 3 payments were made, from 1,478 offers.
- 1,063 Level 4 payments were made, from 1,063 offers
- 120 applicants died before receiving final payments and 82 payments were made to deceased estates
- 40 applicants registered interest but did not make an application and 13 others withdrew their applications before they were finalised
- 519 applicants were determined to be ineligible for payment under the Redress WA Scheme
- 89 applicants appealed their first offer and 19 of those were successful on appeal
- 168 written requests for 'late applications' were received by the Department for Communities after the Redress WA Scheme closed
- 2,231 cases have been referred to police. 14 allegations of abuse were directed at households with people who were caring for children in 2012 and 29 alleged perpetrators in total had Working With Children Cards. These people were referred to the Department for Child Protection for immediate assessment and 3 children were removed from these placements 'due to age and standard of care issues'
- The number of applicants who had unclaimed wages arising from work they did while a Ward of the State was not collected
- Information about the institutions where children who were State Wards suffered abuse was not collected in a database
The Attorney General, on behalf of the Minister for Police on 14 August 2012, also tabled answers put to him in the Legislative Council about actions taken by the WA Police (up to 6 July 2012) on matters arising from the Redress WA Scheme. The Attorney General reported that 204 Redress WA cases were being investigated and 2 individuals had been charged.
One person had 93 Police Charges, which were:
- 37 counts of committing indecent practices between males (Section 184 of the Criminal Code)
- 33 counts of unlawfully and indecently assaulting a male child (Section 315 of the Criminal Code)
- 10 counts of indecent dealing of a child under 14 years (Section 183 of the Criminal Code)
- 6 counts of carnal knowledge against the order of nature (Section 181(1) of the Criminal Code)
- 6 counts of permitting a male to have carnal knowledge (Section 181(3) of the Criminal Code
- 1 count of attempted carnal knowledge (Section 182 of the Criminal Code)
The other person had 43 Police Charges, which were:
- 27 counts of indecent dealing of a child under 14 years (Section 183 of the Criminal Code)
- 7 counts of indecent dealing of a girl under 16 years (Section 189(1) of the Criminal Code)
- 6 counts of incest by a male (Section 197 of the Criminal Code)
- 2 counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a child under 16 years (Section 187(1) of the Criminal Code)
- 1 count of attempted carnal knowledge (Section 182 of the Criminal Code)
Related Entries
Run By
Publications
Newspaper Articles
- Catanzaro, Joseph, 'Child migrant scandal', The West Australian, May 26-27 2012, p. 1. Redress WA was the Western Australian government’s scheme to acknowledge and assist people who had suffered abuse in ‘care’. The scheme closed in 2011. Details
- Catanzaro, Joseph, 'Farmed out to fear', The West Australian, 26-27 May 2012, pp. 63-65. Redress WA was the Western Australian government’s scheme to acknowledge and assist people who had suffered abuse in ‘care’. The scheme closed in 2011. Details
- Strutt, Jessica, 'Liberal Mp urges Redress rethink', The West Australian, 20 August 2009, p. Page 12. Details
Reports
- Department for Communities, Annual Report 2010-2011, Government of Western Australia. Also available at http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/AboutUs/AnnualReports/Documents/Annual%20Report%202011%20-%20digital%20version.pdf. Details
- Government of Western Australia, Redress WA Guidelines: Guidelines to Provide for an Ex Gratia Payment to Persons Abused and/or Neglected as Children While in State Care, 15 February 2010. Also available at http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/Services/Redress/Documents/4760%20Final%20version%20of%20Redress%20WA%20Guidelines-100217.pdf. Details
Online Resources
- parliament.wa.gov.au, Parliament of Western Australia, http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au. Details
- Redress WA Guidelines: Guidelines to Provide for an Ex Gratia Payment to Persons Abused and/or Neglected as Children While in State Care, Government of Western Australia, 18 May 2011, http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/Services/Redress/Documents/Final%20Amended%20Redress%20WA%20Guidelines%2015%20May%202011.pdf. Details
- Redress WA: Acknowledging the past. Initial scheme details (web archive)., Government of Western Australia, 11 February 2008, http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/81490/20080211-1621/www.redress.wa.gov.au/index-2.html. Details
- Holzer, Prue and Bromfield, Leah, 'Australian legal definitions: When is a child in need of protection?', in Child Family Community Australia Research Practice and Policy Information Exchange, Child Family Community Australia, Australian Institute of Family Studies, April 2010, http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/sheets/rs12/rs12.html. Details
Gallery
- Title
- Hansard List Redress WA
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 20 February 2008 - 28 August 2012
- Source
- Parliament of Western Australia
- Title
- Redress WA scheme updates 2009-2011
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 28 July 2009 - 6 March 2011
- Source
- Redress WA
- Title
- Redress Scheme Speech in House of Representatives by Steve Irons, MP
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 20 August 2009
- Source
- House of Representatives
- Note
- Steve Irons MP gave a speech in the House of Representatives objecting to the reduction in maximum payment to Redress WA applicants.
- Title
- Redress WA Support Services for WA Care Leavers
- Type
- Document
- Date
- November 2009
- Source
- Redress WA
- Title
- Looking Back: Looking Forward - Lessons Learn from Redress
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 27 November 2009
- Note
- The Public Advocate made 49 Redress WA applications for adults under guardianship.
- Title
- Redress WA Guidelines (as amended 15 February 2010)
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 15 February 2010
- Source
- Redress WA
- Title
- Redress scheme will leave many disillusioned
- Type
- Newspaper Article
- Date
- 18 February 2010
- Title
- Redress WA - Payment Cap WA Motion Hansard p7139b-7158a
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 22 September 2010
- Source
- Parliament of Western Australia
- Title
- Redress WA Guidelines (as amended 18 May 2011)
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 18 May 2011
- Source
- Redress WA
- Title
- Redress WA Information for Applicants at 28 June 2011
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 28 June 2011
- Source
- Redress WA
- Title
- Redress WA - Completion Statement by Minister for Community Services Hansard p7953b-7954a
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 29 September 2011
- Source
- Parliament of Western Australia
- Title
- Redress WA - Payments WA Hansard p9692d-9693a [Katanning Hostel]
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 23 November 2011
- Source
- Parliament of Western Australia
- Title
- Redress WA Scheme Hansard p4837a-4837a
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 14 August 2012
- Source
- Parliament of Western Australia
- Title
- Redress WA Scheme Hansard p4839a-4839a [Questions re police actions]
- Type
- Document
- Date
- 14 August 2012
- Source
- Parliament of Western Australia
Sources used to compile this entry: Redress WA Guidelines: Guidelines to Provide for an Ex Gratia Payment to Persons Abused and/or Neglected as Children While in State Care, Government of Western Australia, 18 May 2011, http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/Services/Redress/Documents/Final%20Amended%20Redress%20WA%20Guidelines%2015%20May%202011.pdf; Department for Communities, Annual Report 2010-2011, Government of Western Australia. Also available at http://www.communities.wa.gov.au/AboutUs/AnnualReports/Documents/Annual%20Report%202011%20-%20digital%20version.pdf; parliament.wa.gov.au, Parliament of Western Australia, http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au; Redress WA Scheme Hansard p4837a-4837a [Document], Date: 14 August 2012; Redress WA Scheme Hansard p4839a-4839a [Questions re police actions] [Document], Date: 14 August 2012.
Prepared by: Debra Rosser
Created: 16 January 2012, Last modified: 28 August 2012
Last updated: 22 March 2013
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/wa/biogs/WE00505b.htm
First published by the Find and Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Australia License