Chief executive Francis Sullivan said it was paramount the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuses’s preferred option of a national redress scheme, rather than state or territory run model, was debated as part of the federal election campaign.

The council has consistently called for an independent national redress scheme established by the federal government but funded by the institutions responsible for the abuse. The Turnbull government has remained non-committal on establishing a single national redress scheme for child sexual abuse survivors. 

The federal government argued a single scheme was unlikely to be concluded soon enough. Instead, it is pushing ahead with a national framework of consistent principles which would underpin redress schemes run by states and territories. 

“The commission has made a major recommendation for a national redress scheme for abuse survivors which has sadly been dismissed by the federal government in favour of a second option which has little support from survivors or the major institutions involved,” Mr Sullivan said. “All parties need to make very clear to the community where they stand.”

Late last week, Labor released a statement which called on the federal government to support a national scheme. “If there was ever an issue that needed bipartisanship, this should be it,” it said.

The joint media statement was issued by shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, Labor’s families spokeswoman Jenny Macklin and shadow minister for communities carers Clare Moore. 

The statement said a national redress scheme was the number one recommendation of the child sexual abuse inquiry and the preferred approach of survivors. The Catholic Church is predicted be among the largest contributors to pay compensation for decades of child sex crimes.