8.1 Funding contribution liability to the Commonwealth

Funding contribution

Participating institutions (7.1) and funders of last resort (1.1.F.20) of listed institutions are liable to cover the costs of providing redress to a person under the National Redress Scheme, where it is determined the institution is responsible for the abuse the person experienced.

To facilitate timely provision of redress, the Commonwealth will bear the initial costs of paying redress payments and, where applicable, the counselling and psychological payment component, as well as the other costs associated with administering the Scheme. Participating institutions and funders of last resort will pay a funding contribution to reimburse the Commonwealth for their share of these costs for a person.

Funding contributions are calculated each quarter 1 July, 1 October, 1 January and 1 April for the previous quarter and are payable to the Commonwealth.

For any given quarter, the total funding contribution a participating institution or funder of last resort will be required to pay the Scheme is comprised of 2 components:

• the redress component for the participating institution for the quarter
• the Scheme's administration component for the institution for the quarter.

Under funder of last resort arrangements either a participating government institution or jurisdiction will be liable to pay the listed institution's share of the costs of providing redress to a person.

Unless the NRS Rules prescribe otherwise, determining the liability to pay funding contributions does not apply if the participating institution is a Commonwealth institution.

Funding liability of corporate State & Territory institutions

Special conditions apply in determining whether a corporate State or Territory institution has liability to pay funding contributions to the Scheme. Section 158 of the NRSAct is applied to the state or territory, instead of the corporate State or Territory institution, if the following conditions apply.

• The State or Territory institution in question is a body corporate.
• The institution is a participating institution and declared as such by the Minister.
• If the institution were to have liability to pay funding contributions to the Operator, either of the following outcomes would result.
  • The liability would inappropriately act as a form of taxation on that institution.
  • The liability would result in the acquisition of property from the institution through any means other than on just terms.

The Commonwealth's liability for counselling & psychological services contribution

The Commonwealth is liable to pay the initial costs of redress payments and the counselling and psychological care payment components of redress, as well as other administration costs of the Scheme.

The Commonwealth is liable to pay the counselling and psychological services contribution to a participating jurisdiction that is a declared provider of counselling and psychological services under the Scheme. The Commonwealth must pay the contribution to the jurisdiction for the quarter if the jurisdiction became liable in that quarter to provide for the delivery of counselling and psychological care services to a person.

The following participating jurisdictions are declared as providing counselling and psychological services under the Scheme:

• New South Wales
• Victoria
• Queensland
• Western Australia (from 1 January 2023)
• Tasmania
• Australian Capital Territory
• Northern Territory

Participating institutions are liable to pay funding contribution to reimburse the Commonwealth for their share of those costs.

Funding contribution for reassessment determination

If an eligible application for redress is reassessed, the funding contribution for a participating institution or funder of last resort is calculated in the same manner as for an original accepted redress determination.

To facilitate timely provision of redress, the Commonwealth will bear the initial costs of paying redress payments and, where applicable, the counselling and psychological payment component, as well as the other costs associated with administering the Scheme. Participating institutions and funders of last resort will pay a funding contribution to reimburse the Commonwealth for their share of these costs for a person.

A participating institution or funder of last resort will be liable for the reassessment contribution for the quarter when the reassessment determination is:

• accepted by the person
• the institution was determined as responsible for the abuse of a person, and
• the reassessment of redress includes a deficit for that institution.

Where a reassessed funding contribution calculation for an institution is less than previous funding contribution for that institution, the Commonwealth must either repay, or offset this reassessment surplus amount for that participating institution or funder of last resort for a listed institution.