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Parliamentary Questions


Question On Notice No. 2750 asked in the Legislative Council on 11 February 2020 by Hon Alison Xamon

Question Directed to the: Leader of the House representing the Attorney General
Parliament: 40 Session: 1


Question

I refer to the National Redress Scheme, and to funding provided for survivors to access counselling services, and I ask:
(a) is the Western Australian Government undertaking any work to ascertain whether individuals receiving an offer of redress are able to access appropriate counselling services in reasonable time frames across Western Australia;
(b) if yes to (a), what work is being undertaken;
(c) is the Attorney General aware of any issues applicants have faced accessing:
(i) counselling services; and
(ii) support for making a Redress application;
(d) if yes to either (c)(i) or (c)(ii), do the issues relate to:
(i) lack of services in particular geographic locations;
(ii) lack of capacity of existing services; and
(iii) other (please advise what other factors);
(e) is the Attorney General aware if there are any waiting lists for:
(i) Redress counselling services; and
(ii) Redress application support services; and
(f) if yes to (e):
(i) in which regions are there waiting lists; and
(ii) for each of the regions in (f)(i), how long do people have to wait until they can access services?

Answered on 18 March 2020

a-f) The National Redress Scheme, administered and operated by the Commonwealth Government, provides a counselling component to all people who receive an offer of redress. This payment can be spent on the applicant’s choice of counsellor. The Attorney General is not aware of any problems accessing counselling services, however there have been limited reports of capacity issues relating to the provision of support for making redress applications at various times and locations around the State. This is common in the broad rollout of programs in which the uptake of assistance cannot be easily predicted across varied geographical locations and among diverse applicant groups. The Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments jointly fund the not for profit sector to assist survivors apply for redress according to predicted need.  While any delays are undesirable, it is to be noted that the scheme is legislated to run for 10 years.