A. Timeline
January 2013: the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was established. Public hearings started in April 2013.
September 2014: the Royal Commission is extended to December 2017.
March 2015: in a submission to the Royal Commission, the Australian Government states that it is opposed to a national redress scheme because it ‘would be extremely complex and… require significant time and resources to establish’. The submission added that this would frustrate survivors and ‘undermine community confidence in the outcomes of the Royal Commission’s work’.
September 2015: the Royal Commission presented an interim report that recommended creating a single national redress scheme.
November 2016: the Australian Government promised to establish the National Redress Scheme in cooperation with the States and Territories.
June 2017: a parliamentary select committee was established to oversee implementation of the Royal Commission’s redress-related recommendations.
December 2017: the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented its final report. There are 409 recommendations and 84 related to redress.
June 2018: Laws are passed to create the National Redress Scheme. All the States and Territories agreed to join the Scheme.
July 2018: the National Redress Scheme started accepting applications.
October 2018: the Prime Minister made the national apology to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Each October, on a date close to the apology anniversary, speeches have been made in Parliament to recognise this event.
September 2019: a new parliamentary select committee was established to oversee the National Redress Scheme. The Committee presented reports in May 2020 (First Interim) and November 2021 (Second Interim).
June 2021: an independent review (the Second Year Review) of the National Redress Scheme presented its final report. While recommending changes be made, the report said that the ‘window for making meaningful changes to the Scheme is now extremely limited’.
September 2021: laws were amended to remove the requirement for redress applications to include a statutory declaration. This change coincided with increased numbers of redress applications.
July 2022: this Committee is established to continue oversight of the National Redress Scheme. Public hearings are held during 2023 and 2024.
July 2022: funder of last resort (FOLR) arrangements are expanded to cover defunct institutions.
November 2022: the Australian Government announced that $15 million would be spent on hiring more staff to process redress applications.
March 2023: the Australian Government released its final response to the Second Year Review report. A recommendation asking for ‘greater transparency’ by making public the Assessment Framework Policy Guidelines is not supported.
March 2024: further amendments made to the Redress Act, including to allow prisoners to apply for redress.
June 2026: A further independent review of the Scheme is due (Eighth Year Review).
30 June 2027: applications to the National Redress Scheme are due to close.
30 June 2028: the National Redress Scheme is due to end.