Victims Rights and Support Amendment (Transitional Provisions) Regulation 2013 (NSW)

The Victims Rights and Support Amendment (Transitional Provisions) Regulation 2013 has commenced in NSW, aimed at amending the Victims Rights and Support Regulation 2013 to make various savings and transitional provisions consequent on the enactment of the Victims Rights and Support Act 2013 and the closure of the statutory compensation scheme under the repealed Victims Support and Rehabilitation Act 1996.

The new provisions make certain family victims who lodged an application for statutory compensation under the repealed Act eligible for a special $5,000 grant from the Victims Support Fund.

The new regulation also provides that in determining the amount of payments to be made to an applicant classified as a 'family victim,' there will be no reduction for any interim payment made under the repealed Act for funeral expenses.

The Victims Rights and Support Act 2013, which has been effect since June, has been widely criticised. The Act provides that an application for compensation must be made within 10 years of sexual abuse, and if the victim was a child, he or she has 10 years from the time they turn 18 to lodge a claim.

Victims groups complained to the United Nations over the changes, saying that often, victims of child sexual abuse can take decades to report a crime.

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