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\u201cThe payment does not reflect the extent of the pain and suffering Kathleen has endured. This should be about the system recognising the significance of what it did to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn inquiry is urgently needed to understand how the government decided on this figure. When Lindy Chamberlain was exonerated … she received $1.7 million [$1.3 million plus legal costs] for three years in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cKathleen Folbigg spent two decades in prison, yet for her wrongful imprisonment she has been offered $2 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cKathleen Folbigg\u2019s fight should be over. After being failed at her conviction and abused in prison, she is now being treated with contempt by the very system that should be making amends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindy Chamberlain and her then-husband Michael were pardoned in 1987 over the death of their daughter, Azaria, who was taken by a dingo at Uluru, and their convictions were quashed in 1988 following a royal commission. The Chamberlains received a combined $1.3 million ex gratia payment plus costs.<\/p>\n
NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, a member of the state\u2019s upper house and the party\u2019s justice spokesperson, said the figure was \u201ca shocking and insulting offer from Labor Premier Chris Minns, to the woman who was failed in the most incomprehensible way by the state he leads\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m astounded at the lack of reason, financial accounting, reflection and empathy this offer represents,\u201d Higginson said.<\/p>\n
She said $2 million \u201cbarely covers what Kathleen could have earned on a full-time salary over 20 years\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Greens MP Sue Higginson described the $2 million payment as \u201cshocking and insulting\u201d.Credit: Janie Barrett<\/p>\n
\u201cKathleen has not only lost 20 years of wages, she has lost her four children, her home and her employability. She has racked up legal costs fighting her wrongful conviction, she has lost her superannuation, and she has been the victim of one of the worst injustices in this state\u2019s history,\u201d Higginson said.<\/p>\n
Nationals upper house MP Wes Fang said: \u201cIt cannot be a coincidence that this offer was made on the same day we [Fang and Higginson] moved for an inquiry into this matter in the Parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis figure isn\u2019t a genuine attempt at compensation, it\u2019s simply provided as a \u2018we don\u2019t want to appear before a committee to explain our delays and actions\u2019 money.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than ever, we need this inquiry to progress, to examine how this government determined this inadequate figure and why it took two years to provide her an offer, given they probably spend more on their staff lunches in a year, than they\u2019ve ultimately offered her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Folbigg served 20 years of a minimum 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2003 of the murder of three of her children, Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and the manslaughter of her first child, Caleb, at the family\u2019s NSW homes. The children were aged between 19 days and 19 months.<\/p>\n
The Crown case that Folbigg smothered her children without leaving any physical trace was circumstantial and relied heavily on her diary entries, which were alleged to contain admissions.<\/p>\n
But an inquiry headed by former NSW chief justice Tom Bathurst, KC, heard for the first time expert psychological and psychiatric evidence that did not support this interpretation.<\/p>\n
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Folbigg and her dog Snowie at Stockton, just north of Newcastle, last year.Credit: James Brickwood<\/p>\n
The Bathurst inquiry also heard expert evidence that a genetic variant Folbigg shared with her daughters might cause cardiac arrhythmias \u2013 irregular heart rhythms \u2013 and sudden unexpected death. It also heard Patrick might have died as a result of an underlying neurogenetic disorder such as epilepsy. The genetic variant was discovered after Folbigg\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n
Bathurst concluded there was an identifiable natural cause of death for Patrick, Sarah and Laura, and that \u201conce that conclusion is reached, any probative force of the coincidence and tendency evidence [in relation to Caleb\u2019s death] is substantially diminished\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence before the inquiry, at most, demonstrates that Ms Folbigg was a loving and caring mother who occasionally became angry and frustrated with her children. That provides no support for the proposition that she killed her four children,\u201d Bathurst said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley\u2019s office confirmed an ex gratia payment would be made but did not reveal the figure. The statement said that \u201c[at] Ms Folbigg\u2019s request\u201d the government had \u201cagreed to not publicly discuss the details of the decision\u201d.<\/p>\n