Kathleen Folbigg’s $2m ex-gratia payment labelled ‘unfair, unjust’

Kathleen Folbigg’s key supporters have labelled her $2m compensation payout as “woefully inadequate and ethically indefensible,” with the amount evening out to be $100,000 a year over her 20-year imprisonment.

NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley confirmed the 58-year-old will receive the taxpayer-funded payment following a lengthy consideration process.

Mr Daley’s decision comes more than two years after Ms Folbigg was initially released from the Clarence Correctional Centre on June 12, 2023.

The NSW Government did not reveal the sum, the amount was quickly confirmed by her solicitor Rhanee Rego.

Ms Rego said the sum was a “moral affront” and “woefully inadequate and ethically indefensible”.

She called for an urgent inquiry to understand how the figure was calculated.

“The system has failed Kathleen Folbigg once again,” she said.

“Kathleen lost her four children; she lost 20 of the best years of her life; and she continues to feel the lasting effects of this ongoing trauma.

“The 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.”

30-year sentence

Ms Folbigg spent two decades in prison after she was found guilty of causing the deaths of her four children, Patrick (eight months), Laura (10 months), Sarah (19 months) and Caleb (19 days) in 2003.

While she was initially given a 30-year jail sentence, Ms Folbigg was released in 2023, after new scientific evidence indicated there was reasonable doubt her children could have died due to natural causes or a rare genetic mutation.

NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson said the $2m payout showed a “lack of reason, financial accounting, reflection and empathy”.

She noted Lindy Chamberlain was given $1.3m by the Northern Territory government in 1992 after she was wrongfully convicted of killing her two-month-old daughter Azaria, which “could be anywhere around $23m” in today’s money when factoring in inflation.

Ms Higginson said it was a “serious slap in the face”.

“$2m barely covers what Kathleen could have earned on a full-time salary over 20 years. Kathleen has not only lost 20 years of wages, she has lost her four children, her home and her employability,” she said.

“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’s history – wrongful imprisonment”.

Ms Higginson criticised the amount as ‘Go Away’ money, after NSW Premier Chris Minns came under fire for rejecting meeting requests with Ms Folbigg and her legal team.

“Ex-gratia payments are payments of grace and good will, but what the Minns Labor Government have done today is offered a disgraceful payment in bad faith, it is ‘Go Away’ money,” she said.

“It’s unfair and speaks of misogyny and failure to take responsibility for the State’s infliction of a grave injustice.”

Mr Daley said the payout amount was decided following “thorough and extensive consideration of the materials and issues raised in Ms Folbigg’s application and provided by her legal representatives”.

“The decision has been communicated to Ms Folbigg via her legal representatives.

“At Ms Folbigg’s request, the Attorney-General and government have agreed to not publicly discuss the details of the decision.