A complaint from Victoria's Labor government about the slow rollout of compensation to child sexual abuse victims has prompted a review in Canberra.
Victorian Attorney-General Jill Hennessy has written to the federal Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher concerned about "significant delays" in the scheme and its lack of transparency.
"We have great hope in the power and possibility of the national redress scheme, unfortunately Victoria is disappointed with how the scheme has been operating to date," she told reporters at parliament.
"Last year we had only a third of our 66 applications the subject of offers being made to those victims and this year only two of approximately 34 applications have been processed."
Governments across Australia signed up to the national scheme last year to provide victims easier, quicker access to compensation.
Ms Hennessy said the federal government could increase resources to the scheme to speed up claims, because delays risk re-traumatising victims.
"Many people don't report that they were victims of child sex abuse for a long period of time and the scars of that emotional and physical trauma often play out in a range of ways," she said.
"It's so critical that we provide people with quick access to justice and fair access to justice and I think the national redress scheme has a long way to go if we're going to meet that promise."
A spokeswoman from Mr Fletcher's office said the letter had been passed on to the Department of Social Services, which will look into the claims.
"The department is giving serious consideration to the matters raised," she said in a statement.
"The government stands ready to make whatever changes are required, in close consultation with the jurisdictions, to ensure that the survivor is placed at the centre of the scheme."
For claims to be processed, the relevant institutions need to have joined the scheme and shown they have an ability to make redress payments.
Last week Mr Fletcher named more than 100 institutions who have not signed on to the scheme.
So far 51 Australians have received payments through the scheme, receiving on average $79,035 and another 31 people are considering a payment offer, and have six months to do so.
Ms Hennessy said the Victorian government was also still working on laws that would force priests to report cases of child abuse, including when heard during confession.
The laws, first flagged in September, aim to break the culture of secrecy, she added.
The government is also considering whether to pursue laws that would allow victims who received payments under the George Pell-created Melbourne Response to sue the Catholic Church.
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