NT Ombudsman calls for policy change to better help victims of crime amid ‘huge backlog’ for assistance

MORE needs to be done to support victims of crime, Northern Territory Ombudsman Peter Shoyer says, noting there is a ‘huge backlog’ of applications for financial assistance.

More needs to be done to support victims of crime, NT Ombudsman Peter Shoyer says.

MORE needs to be done to support victims of crime, Northern Territory Ombudsman Peter Shoyer says, noting a “huge backlog” of applications for financial assistance.

According to the Attorney-General and Justice Department’s annual report, 325 of the 373 victims of crime assistance applications were closed.

But despite a good year in 2019-20, the Ombudsman NT’s annual report shows there are still about 1700 outstanding applications overall.

Mr Shoyer said the Attorney-General’s Department and the Crime Victims Services Unit (CVSU) had achieved “significant results” in attempting to clear this backlog but said only so much could be achieved within existing policy.

“In my view, it will remain difficult to obtain substantial improvements in victim outcomes without some form of legislative change,” Mr Shoyer notes in the report.

“It is crucial that structural hurdles that have contributed to the backlog are mitigated in the development of new or amended legislation.

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“The Victims of Crime Charter states that the essence of support for victims of crime should be to provide ‘simple, quick, co-ordinated and respectful’ service.

Delay and complexity in dealing with matters can do little to assist, particularly when dealing with victims who may be traumatised by violent crime.”

In 2018, the NT government launched a review of the relevant legislation, the Victims of Crime Assistance Act.

The Ombudsman made a submission to the review but did not recommend any specific legislative changes.

“The legislative, policy and resource mix adopted to deal with the backlog will be a matter for government to decide but it is essential for government to address the backlog as well as the future structure of the scheme, if victims are to be provided with a ‘simple, quick, co-ordinated and respectful’ service,” the spokeswoman said.

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According to data from the CVSU, total compensation paid to victims of crime in the NT has more than tripled since 2016-17, when $1.1m was paid out based on 213 decisions made under the act.

In 2019-20, $3.6m was paid out based on 476 decisions.