Australian victims of terror attacks and their families are finally set to receive compensation. Source: AAP
A VICTIM of the second Bali bombings hopes compensation for victims of terrorism overseas will help the children who lose their parents.
Paul Anicich was critically injured while with a large group of families from Newcastle when the 2005 Bali bombings killed 23 people including four Australians.
He hopes retrospective compensation for terror victims announced by Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday will help children impacted by terror attacks.
From October 21, all Australian victims of terrorism overseas since the September 11, 2001 attacks will be able to apply for up to $75,000 in compensation under changes announced by the Abbott government.
Mr Abbott, who was holidaying in Bali in 2005 and helped arrange for Mr Anicich to be airlifted to Singapore for treatment, has long pushed for this compensation and had called for the Gillard government's victims of overseas terrorism compensation scheme to be retrospective.
The retrospective scheme will cover Australians affected by the 2001 attacks on New York and subsequent terrorism in Bali, Jakarta, London, Egypt, Mumbai and most recently Nairobi.
Mr Anicich hopes it helps the children left behind.
"I immediately thought of the then young children who had been left without parents, who were with us in that bombing, and the prospect that there would be some money that could help them along in their lives without parents," he told AAP.
"Even though it is seven years later it will certainly help them."
Mr Abbott fulfilled his pre-election pledge to backdate compensation when he announced the scheme after laying a wreath at the site of the 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Standing alongside Peter Hughes, who was injured in that first Bali blast, Mr Abbott acknowledged the compensation could not change the past but said they amounted to a "measure of justice" for the victims.
"This is a modest enough acknowledgment of those who have suffered by virtue of the fact that they were Australian," he told reporters in Kuta.
He said the victims were singled out as targets "because they were westerners and their way of life was an abomination to those who wished us harm".
The scheme is expected to benefit about 300 individuals and their families and cost around $30 million, and won't replace existing benefits available to victims.
Ray Mavroudis, whose cousin David Mavroudis died in Bali in 2002, said nothing could restore their ruined lives, but Australians affected by terrorism now at least have the consolation of compensation.
"You never bring the victim back, unfortunately, but it's some sort of consolation to help their families get through it," he said.
Mr Mavroudis said more information should be given to families about counselling services available.
"Money doesn't go that far when it comes to psychological things," he said.
"Their family's lives are wrecked for the rest of their life because they've lost a loved one."
Albert Talarico, the president of the Coogee Dolphins rugby league club when six of their young players were killed in Bali in 2002, said he wasn't sure whether any of their parents would access the payments.
"But ... at least they know it's there, and that's the main thing," Mr Talarico told AAP.
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