Survivors of institutional child abuse will be able to get up to $150,000 as part of a national redress scheme announced by the federal government.
But there are questions about the scheme's effectiveness given it will be opt-in and require churches, states, territories or charities to pay.
The scheme will be set up by 2018 and will offer survivors psychological counselling and monetary payment, which won't impact on their welfare payments.
"It should be a mandatory obligation to participate and contribute."
The government says it's a fair and generous scheme that acknowledges the wrongdoing inflicted upon survivors.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter said the cost of supporting 3000 victims from commonwealth facilities would be between $570 million to $770 million over 10 years.
"The central thing that we are trying to avoid in all of this is to re-traumatise victims who have already been through an enormous amount," he told reporters in Perth on Friday.
But he admitted that not all jurisdictions and entities had signed up to the scheme, given it was opt-in and operated on a "responsible entity pays basis".
South Australia has opted out of the scheme, while NSW and Victoria have yet to announce their positions and Western Australia's stance is unclear.
Mr Porter said the commonwealth couldn't force them to join due to constitutional reasons.
"The unequivocal legal advice is that it is very, very unlikely that we have the power to establish a single scheme by compulsion."
Large churches and charities have shown enthusiasm, he said.
An independent advisory council will also be set up to bring survivor groups, legal and psychological experts together to advise on implementation of the scheme.
The head of Care Leavers Australia Network, a national support group for abuse victims, welcomed the scheme as a good first step.
"But it's not good enough to stay we can't put pressure on the states or the churches and charities," chief executive Leonie Sheedy told AAP.
"It should be a mandatory obligation to participate and contribute."
She says if any charity or church don't contribute, they should lose their tax exemptions.
Key features are:
* The commonwealth will operate the scheme, which states, territories and institutions like churches and charities will be able to opt-in
* It will start early 2018 and last for at least 10 years
* Entities that opt-in will be responsible for paying out eligible claims, with payments limited to $150,000
* Payments will be exempted from personal debt recoveries and income tests relevant to government payments like welfare
* Survivors will also get access to counselling over the entire life of the scheme.
* So far South Australia has said no to opting in
* If Northern Territory and ACT do not opt-in they may be forced by new federal laws to do so. But the federal government has no power to force the states to do so.
