The Social Services Minister, Senator Anne Ruston, and the Prime Minister, are to be commended for the hard line they threaten to take on any institutions that fail to sign up for the National Redress Scheme for victims of institutional child sexual abuse.
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The scheme, one of the key recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which ran from January 2013 to December 2017, came into being on July 1, 2018.
It was established to provide a streamlined and non-adversarial pathway for the victims of institutional child sexual abuse to obtain a personal response, and compensation payments of up to $150,000, from the institution involved.
The royal commission was told of numerous instances in which self-administered compensation arrangements had resulted in adverse outcomes for the victims.
Some organisations, most notably religious orders within the Catholic Church, often made non-disclosure agreements a condition of compensation. There were also many instances where individuals who had undergone long periods of the most vile and demeaning sexual abuse by those in a position of trust received far less than they would have if their cases had been heard in court.
While it is of great concern that more than seven years after the commission began taking evidence a handful of organisations are still refusing to join the redress scheme, this issue extends beyond the groups named and shamed by Senator Ruston.
They are, for the record, the Boys' Brigade NSW, Fairbridge Restored Limited, Lakes Entrance Pony Club, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and Kenja Communications.
The Australian Air League, which was also named, has since agreed to join.
Kenja Communications, which has rejected suggestions it is a cult, denies that any sexual abuse ever took place.
The Jehovah's Witnesses maintain they do not have the "institutional settings" - whatever that means - needed to be covered by the redress scheme; a position rejected by Senator Ruston.
"It's not up to you [individual organisations] to make those decisions," she said. "Let the independent scheme assess the validity of the arguments you are putting forward".
The redress scheme hit the headlines on Wednesday because June 30 was the deadline for institutions to have either joined, or to have given an undertaken to join the scheme by December 31, 2020.
While attention has been largely focused on those organisations which have refused to even commit to joining the scheme, the sad reality is that hundreds - possibly even thousands - of victims of sexual abuse are as yet still unable to obtain redress and financial compensation.
This is because a significant proportion of the organisations that have given written undertakings to join have yet to do so. While that may well be because of administrative difficulties, it is quite possible - given the past behaviour of some of the organisations involved, that there could be a bit of foot dragging going on as well.
The last thing anybody wants to see is a long tail of organisations which have committed to the scheme but are yet to complete the necessary paperwork come the end of the year.
It is for this reason that any sanctions, such as the revocation of tax-deductible status or the denial of access to public funding, should also apply to any recalcitrants who fail to meet the December 31 deadline.
This is the absolute least that can be done for the many who suffered so much in pain and silence for so long.
