Six institutions, including the Jehovah's Witnesses, have been publicly named by the Federal Government for failing to sign up to the National Redress Scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.
Key points:
- Organisations had until last night to join the program
- The Government says those which did not sign up will no longer receive Commonwealth funding
- 380 non-government institutions have signed up or intend to sign up to the scheme
Organisations had until last night to join the program, with the Commonwealth promising to not only reveal those which refused to take part, but also cut them off from future federal funding and consider ways to cut their charitable status.
The six institutions are Australian Air League, Boys' Brigade NSW, Fairbridge Restored Limited, Lakes Entrance Pony Club, Jehovah's Witnesses and Kenja Communications.
There are 55 applications from victims of child sexual abuse that cannot currently be processed as a result of the six groups failing to sign up.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston was scathing as she urged the organisations to think about the consequences of not joining.
"Think about the reputational damage by you saying, as an organisation, that despite having a history of working with children, despite having applications against your organisation for child sexual abuse, you still refuse to accept your moral obligation and responsibility to come forward and allow these people the small thing of a bit of redress and a small amount of money to acknowledge that they actually have had wrongs committed against them," she told the ABC's AM program.
The Commonwealth and state and territory governments have all signed up to the scheme — covering any abuse that happened within their institutions.
In total, 224 non-government institutions have agreed to take part in the scheme, while another 156 have signalled their intention to join.
Jehovah's Witnesses argued it did not have the "institutional settings" needed to be covered by the National Redress Scheme.
"Jehovah's Witnesses understand that, to date, there have been less than 10 applicants to the redress scheme who have referred to the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses," the organisation's Tom Pecipajkovski told the ABC.
"Jehovah's Witnesses have responded and will continue to respond directly to individual claims for redress in a caring, fair, and principled manner, taking into consideration the unique circumstances of each claim.
"The religion of Jehovah's Witnesses also provides spiritual comfort and assistance to child abuse victims and their families."
Senator Ruston said it was not up to Jehovah's Witnesses or other organisations to decide whether their models suited the scheme or not.
"It's not up to you to make those decisions," she said.
"Let the independent scheme assess the validity of the arguments you're putting forward because they may well be correct but it's not for them to decide.
"We have applications and we have a responsibility to process them."
The Minister said in the future if a new non-participating organisation was named in an application, it would have six months from when it was notified of the application to join the scheme, or be publicly named and be ineligible for Commonwealth funding.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMib2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA3LTAxL2dvdmVybm1lbnQtbmFtZXMtc2hhbWVzLWluc3RpdHV0aW9ucy1ub3QtcGFydC1vZi1yZWRyZXNzLXNjaGVtZS8xMjQwNjg1MNIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjQwNjg1MA?oc=5
2020-06-30 23:03:51Z
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