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Australian Victims Of Paris To Be Compensated, As Malcolm Turnbull Declares Attacks 'A Terrorist Act'

PM Offers Compensation To Australian Victims Of Paris Attacks
60 Minutes

Australian victims of last month's Paris attacks will be able to apply for up to $75,000 in compensation.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared the November Paris attacks 'a terrorist act' Sunday, making those directly involved eligible for one-off payments through the Federal Government's Australian Victim of Terrorism Overseas Payment (AVTOP) scheme.

"We stand with victims of terrorism overseas in the same way that we stand with the victims of crimes committed in Australia," the statement from the Attorney General's office read.

A small number of Australians were caught up in the Paris attacks, including 19-year-old Emma Parkinson.

The Hobart woman underwent surgery in Paris after being shot in the back inside the Bataclan Concert Hall on the night of 14 November.

The 19-year-old was shot multiple times in the hip and lower back, but managed to escape the hall where 78 others were killed and hide in a corridor next to the building.

Melbourne woman Sophie Doran was also in the Bataclan that fateful night. She escaped injury by hiding behind chairs with a friend and pretending to be dead until police stormed the hall.

The compensation scheme was set up by the Gillard Government in 2012 and in 2013 was expanded by then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott to apply to victims of terror since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

Other overseas attacks which have been declared 'terrorist acts' include the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, the London Underground attacks and the armed assault in Nairobi in 2013.

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