Page 751 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 8 March 2016
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The Canberra Liberals will support this bill. At this time I would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the role that the Victims of Crime Commissioner, Mr John Hinchey, has performed with regard to the design of this new system. I think that this well reflects his ongoing advocacy for victims of crime. Many of us would have had dealings with Mr Hinchey and have seen his work, particularly recently, on the issue of domestic violence. I take this opportunity to thank Mr Hinchey for his work and congratulate him on the recent award of the Public Service Medal for his role in the public sector and his commitment to victims of crime in the ACT.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Corrections, Minister for Education, Minister for Justice and Consumer Affairs and Minister for Road Safety) (12.12): I am pleased to support the Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance) Bill 2016. In my view this is a good reform that is designed to make the financial assistance scheme for victims of crime much easier to access and more flexible and fair.
I have had contact with several stakeholders who are either supportive of the changes or who have no issues with them. I note that John Hinchey, the ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner, has worked closely with the government on developing the new scheme, drawing on his considerable experience working with the current scheme and with victims of crime in the ACT. It appears to me that the Justice and Community Safety Directorate and Mr Hinchey have done a good job in working through this complex area of reform to make it fairer and more accessible, and I congratulate them on their work.
My office enjoys fairly regular contact with the commissioner, and on this issue his view is that the proposed new scheme is an important improvement, and is in fact more generous in its payment schedules than anywhere else in the country. This is a good outcome for victims in the ACT.
It is important to get this overall positive assessment from the commissioner, as the revisions to the scheme and the types and amounts of payments are quite complex. In the new scheme, in some categories of payment a victim may be eligible for less assistance than they previously were. Overall, however, the scheme is a better one that will see more victims eligible for the assistance they need.
One of the key improvements in the new scheme is that it will allow more victims to access compensation whereas previously the scheme’s inflexibility would have excluded them. Mr Hinchey provided some quite moving examples to my office of situations where the existing scheme meant certain victims of crime were ineligible for financial assistance. It is good to know that the new scheme will allow more people to get the help and assistance that can help them get their life back on track and overcome the setbacks caused by crimes perpetrated against them or their families.
Victims of crime often face ongoing suffering and hardships from both physical and psychological injuries or other disruptions to their lives, and we need to make sure the financial assistance scheme operates effectively to help them. Of course, money alone often will not erase a victim’s trauma, but it can certainly be important in assisting someone on the journey to recovery.
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