Helen Last, director of clergy abuse advocates In Good Faith, said compensation was a vexed area because of the arbitrary response of the churches to compensation claims.
She said compensation offers ranged from significantly more than the Catholic Church's Melbourne Response $75,000 cap to "paltry" amounts of several thousand dollars, while large orders including the Christian Brothers and Good Shepherd Sisters had recently cut their standard payments to $5000 where abuse was committed by brothers and $2000 where it was committed by nuns.
"These figures are an insult and they cause so much despair for the victims," Ms Last told The Australian. "The victims are walking away from that and saying, 'You can keep it.' "
Ms Last said she strongly favoured Australia adopting the Irish model, where the government closely monitors church compensation payments and churches pay into a government-administered fund so that "no longer is it in the hands of the church".
"The proliferation of horror and abuse in Ireland is no different to what we know has happened here and this inquiry, on a federal level, is going to show us that picture very clearly," she said.
Ms Last said she was absolutely satisfied with the government's evolving plans for the royal commission.
"They've got to have some kind of management plan to launch the boat because it is a very unwieldy thing to be doing," she said. "The whole field of the abuse of children and vulnerable adults is a chaotic place, full of trauma dynamics and anxiety, accusations, allegations and criminal matters. You are dealing with the offenders and the victims and their families. It is a hugely dynamic context."
Ms Roxon yesterday said she wanted to ensure the sex abuse royal commission was "manageable", signalled that not all abuse victims would get to tell their stories and said the government's focus was on fixing the system, rather than compensation.
"Our primary concern is to look at the recommendations that will help fix the system for the future," she said.
"So our primary concern is not to be looking at compensation as a starting point. But ... the entire community understands that that might be something that flows from the work of the commission, and we are certainly not ruling that out."
A government discussion paper says the commissions findings and recommendations might extend to "ensuring that there are no obstacles to the making of claims and that there is sufficient support for victims of abuse in pursuing those claims".