After various reviews, inquiries and consultations, the Victims of Crime (Financial Assistance Scheme) Bill 2022 (the Bill) passed the Victorian Parliament on 26 May 2022.
SMLS has been supporting victims of crime through our Integrated Services for Survivor Advocacy (ISSA) program for over 26 years. Last year, we assisted 78 people with VOCAT applications, being awarded approximately $550,000 in compensation payments for our clients. Alongside many other activists and community legal centres, we have been pushing for reform to this legislation for many years.
The Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal (VOCAT) will be replaced with a Financial Assistance Scheme that places the needs of the victim at the centre stage and pushes to minimise victim trauma – signalling the most significant change for victims of crime in 50 years.
889,800 Australians aged 15 years and over experienced one or more selected personal crimes in 2020-21. The selected crimes included physical, sexual, face-to-face, and non-face-to-face threatened assaults, to name a few.
The outdated system has many flaws that we hope to see rectified through this new legislation, such as the Scheme’s administrative and evidentiary requirement for financial assistance was onerous and time-consuming delaying the victim’s reality of violent experience and recovery.
The Bill promises to transform victim experience by minimising victim trauma through timely, trauma-informed, and accessible financial assistance. Elimination of formal hearings, quicker application turnaround times, and better integration of the System with the victim financial assistance program will bring about a more humanised and victim-centric justice deliverance.
Even though the Bill offers the invaluably therapeutic and empowering experience of receiving the public acknowledgement of the harm experienced by the victim-survivor. We, at SMLS, still have deep concerns that the Bill has not incorporated some critical recommendations of the Victoria Law Reform Commission (VLRC) from its review of the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 1996 (VOCA Act).
Critical amendments needed to the Bill:
- Remove the requirement for mandatory police reporting
- Remove the requirement to take into consideration the character and past criminal activity of the victim-survivor
- Remove the requirement for ‘exceptional circumstances’ for recovery related expenses
During the debate, Tania Maxwell MP and several other cross benchers highlighted other concerns in relation to the Bill, including the police reporting requirement, the grounds for refusal based on character grounds and the requirement for ‘exceptional circumstances’ for recovery related expenses. The debate is available in Hansard here (see pages 55-72).
Ultimately, the proposed amendments were not supported by the majority and the Bill passed without amendment. However, we were pleased to see that our key concerns were raised during the debate on the Bill and a commitment by the government to continue to work with our sector as part of the operationalisation of the scheme.
SMLS and other community legal centres will continue advocating to Minister Hutchins’ office to provide input on the regulations and guidelines needed to operationalise the legislation.
Chloe had planned to meet her friends on the eve of her birthday. She was excited as she was turning 25 and starting a new role at her workplace. She got down at the Heatherton train station waiting to be picked up by one of her friends before they joined with her other pals at CBD.
The streetlights switched on and Chloe’s eyes were set on the car park, on the lookout for a red Toyota Camry. She didn’t hesitate to look back when she was approached by a man and long before she even knew it, she was on the floor. Thankfully, her friend had witnessed the incident and intervened before it got more physical.
Chloe had a broken jaw and a black eye. Apart from the physical assault, she was mentally scarred as well. She struggled with a severe case of anxiety and trauma from the violent experience. She had to report the case to the police before any action could by Victoria’s Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal (VOCAT). Chloe couldn’t go forward with her new role due to her severe case of anxiety. She was recommended to see a psychologist. However, due to the lack of financial stability, she sought help from VOCAT.
It’s been close to four months and her application assessment has just commenced. Her trauma has been exacerbated by the long-overdrawn process and her anxiety is at an all-time high.
