Australians caught up in last month’s attacks in Paris will be entitled to up to $75,000 in federal assistance, after the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, formally declared the incident an act of terror.
Only one Australian, Emma Grace Parkinson, was wounded in the attack, but the attorney general, George Brandis, said a “small number” of others were caught up in the attack and therefore entitled to payment through the Australian victim of terrorism overseas payment.
“We stand with victims of terrorism overseas in the same way that we stand with the victims of crimes committed in Australia,” Brandis said in a written statement released on Sunday.
Declaring the incident a terror attack under the Criminal Code Act “is an important acknowledgement of the pain and suffering these victims of terrorism have suffered”, Brandis said.
Parkinson was released from hospital a few days after being shot and wounded in the hip during the attacks. The 19-year old had just relocated to Paris, and was attending the Eagles of Death Metal concert in Bataclan concert hall when the terrorist attack was carried out.
A total of 129 people were killed in the November attack.
In 2013, then prime minister, Tony Abbott, introduced legislation to allow the compensation to be retrospective so that victims of terrorism overseas could receive payment for acts committed as far back as 2001.
The Gillard government introduced the assistance scheme in 2012.
