WA's attorney-general says the state won't sign up to the national redress scheme for child sexual abuse victims until the federal government takes responsibility for child migrants brought to Australia from the 1940s to the 1960s.
NSW and Victoria have signed up to the scheme, which begins on July 1, but WA wants more information from the government, specifically what responsibility it will take for the post-war Commonwealth Child Migration Scheme.
"Until there's a set of rules published that set out the Commonwealth's liability in this matter, we're very reluctant to agree to anything," John Quigley told parliament on Wednesday.
"The Commonwealth is intent on not putting a dollar into it apart from servicemen and indigenous children in the Northern Territory, but they want to beat their chest and call it a national scheme.
"If it's going to be a national scheme, they're going to have to honour their legal obligations to the children that they were guardians of."
Premier Mark McGowan told reporters on the weekend the state government asked seven specific questions about the scheme late last year but has not received a reply.
