NTG forced to hand back $40k to rape survivor who was violent attacked in a remote community

The Territory Government has been forced to hand back $40,000 in victims of crime compensation to a rape survivor after initially claiming the woman had double dipped.

THE Territory Government has been forced to hand back $40,000 in victims of crime compensation to a rape survivor after initially claiming the woman had double dipped.

The NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard the woman was violently raped in a remote NT community in January last year before applying for financial assistance under victims of crime legislation.

She was deemed eligible for the maximum level of compensation of $40,000 in September but the assessor ruled worker’s comp she received for the loss of earnings and medical expenses following the attack had to be deducted.

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As the workers comp totalled just over $40,000, the assessor reduced her victims of crime compensation to zero.

In overturning that decision, NTCAT president Richard Bruxner ruled the woman was not “double dipping”, as the victims of crime payment came as a result of the attack itself while the worker’s comp came as a result of the injuries she suffered.

“Although an award for a compensable violent act may be larger because of injuries demonstrated to have resulted from it, it does not follow that the character of the award is thereby transformed into an award of compensation for the injuries,” he said.

“The payments to the applicant under the Return to Work Act 1986 (on account of lost earnings and medical expenses) were not properly to be viewed as payments ‘for the compensable violent act’ she suffered at the hands of (her rapist).”

Mr Bruxner said the victims of crime scheme would be “undermined substantially” if compensation could be erased as a result of other legitimate claims for redress.

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“There is no challenge to the respondent’s assessment that the applicant was otherwise entitled to an award of compensation for the compensable violent act in the maximum allowable sum of $40,000,” he said.

“In the absence of any challenge to the assessment, and having regard to the circumstances of the rape and its profound consequences for the applicant, an award in that sum is clearly appropriate.”

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