7 Institutions

Introduction

This part outlines information about institutions that are able to participate in the National Redress Scheme. It also describes the requirements for an institution to participate, and when an institution can be determined as responsible for abuse.

There are 4 types of institutions identified in the Scheme:

• Commonwealth institutions (such as Commonwealth departments and bodies established under Commonwealth law)
• State institutions (such as state departments and certain bodies established under individual state laws)
• Territory institutions (such as territory departments and certain bodies established under individual territory laws)
• non-government institutions (such as churches, sporting groups and charities).

While all Commonwealth and Territory institutions are participating in the Scheme, State and non-government institutions are only participating in the Scheme if they agree to join the Scheme. The Minister must make a formal declaration, by notifiable instrument, that an institution is a participating institution or is listed through funders of last resort arrangements under the Scheme.

Institutions that participate in the Scheme may also join as part of a group and appoint a representative institution to interact with the Scheme on the group's behalf. For groups of participating non-government institutions, the Minister must be satisfied of the connections between each institution in the group before declaring the group and then the representative institution (which may or may not be an institution participating in the Scheme).

Institutions that no longer exist (known as defunct institutions) can be included under the Scheme where a person or organisation has agreed to be the representative for the defunct institution and accept liability for redress, for example, where a state public school no longer exists but the relevant state government agrees it will be its representative.