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Communities and Justice

Review of the Victims Rights and Support Act 2013

The NSW Department of Communities and Justice is reviewing the Victims Rights and Support Act 2013 to determine whether the policy objectives of the Act remain valid and whether the terms of the Act remain appropriate for securing those objectives.

In 2018, the Department completed the first statutory review of the Act. Details about the first review, including the final report, can be found here. 

About the Act

The Act establishes the Victims Support Scheme and legislates the Charter of Victims Rights to provide practical and financial support to victims of violent crime in New South Wales. The Act commenced on 3 June 2013.

The policy objectives of the Act include:

  • Recognising and promoting the rights of victims of crime; 
  • Establishing the role of the Commissioner of Victims Rights and the Victims Support Fund;
  • Establishing a scheme for the provision of support for victims of acts of violence;
  • Enabling financial support paid and recognition payments made under the Victims Support Scheme to be recovered from persons found guilty of the crimes giving rise to the payments;
  • Giving effect to an alternative scheme under which a court may order the person it finds guilty of a crime to pay compensation to any victim of the crime; 
  • Establishing the Victims Advisory Board including its membership and statutory functions; and
  • Prescribing other miscellaneous provisions related to the operation of the Act. 

The Act can be viewed in full on the NSW legislation website.

Have your say

Submissions on the Background Paper (PDF, 1.4 MB) for the statutory review of the Act closed on 22 July 2022. We received 54 submissions and have permission to publish the following 47 submissions. 

Please note: The following submissions cannot be read by screen readers. If you require an accessible version, please email us. 

Last updated:

29 Mar 2023

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We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future. 

Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.

You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.

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