On paper it is possible to create laws which do not appear to impact any single group more adversely than another. Changing the way universities structures their fees may not theoretically disadvantage women, for example, but the consequences in practice can be quite different.
And so it is with changes to victim compensation in New South Wales. The intention may not have been to disproportionately disadvantage women, but laws which have retrospectively limited the amount of compensation available to victims of crime, have that effect. Why? Because according to a report prepared by PwC for the NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice, it is women who make up the majority of claimants.
Earlier this week ABC’s 7.30 brought this issue to the fore in airing a story about Katrina Keshishian. She was 20 when she was gang-raped in Sydney’s west, in 2008.
Keshishian told ABC reporter Louise Milligan that she applied for victim-of-crime compensation and was classified as a victim of a ‘category three’ sexual assault. This meant she was entitled to compensation between $25,000 and $50,000. Six years after the trauma she endured, in June this year her claim was approved, but the payment was reduced to $15,000.
She was the victim of an atrocious and vile crime; can you imagine the physical, the financial and the psychological toll she has endured as a result?
On the program NSW Attorney-General Brad Hazzard was frank that Keshishian had suffered horrendously but argued the law changes were required to ensure the victim compensation scheme remained financially viable.
A petition against these changes has been registered with Change.org and has already attracted nearly 80,000 signatures. If you’d like to add your name to that list you can sign here.