The terror attack at a Bali restaurant killed three Newcastle people and left others badly injured.
Mr Abbott has pledged to introduce legislation within 100 days of winning office to ensure that victims of attacks as far back as 2001 can claim compensation.
Tony Purkiss, who was left blind by the 2005 bombing, was at the announcement at Newcastle City Hall.
"It's very much appreciated," he says of the promise.
"We're all carrying the scars in various ways.
"From my perspective, it's one thing being in your fifties and unemployed, it's another being in your fifties, blind and unemployed."
Another Newcastle victim, Paul Anicich, told 1233 ABC Newcastle's Jill Emberson he doesn't consider the compensation "retrospective".
He says Mr Abbott first mentioned the concept to him at a dinner in Newcastle in 2006, soon after Mr Anicich had been the last of the Bali bombing victims to return home to Australia.
"I thought to myself immediately what a wonderful thing it would be for the children of the couple in Newcastle with whom I was on that night, who were both killed," Mr Anicich recalls.
"This morning's announcement is a confirmation of that very discussion we had that night.
"I have never seen it as retrospective," he says.
Mr Anicich says it was mostly Newcastle people who were affected by the second Bali bombing.
"Because we had gone there together as a group with our children," he explains.
"It's eight years since kids of Newcastle were orphaned, and several of us had our lives changed forever by the injuries with which we were inflicted.
"If politics takes that long and it coincides with a Federal election, as far as I'm concerned that's coincidental."
Mr Anicich first crossed paths with Mr Abbott, who was travelling in Bali at the time, very soon after the bombing.
The then Health Minister called in an emergency air service to fly both Mr Anicich and another Novocastrian to Singapore for medical treatment.
Mr Anicich considers that he owes his life to Mr Abbott due to his quick actions to have victims evacuated.
Victims covered by the proposed backdated compensation would include those affected by the World Trade Centre attacks, as well as the London bombings and terrorism in Mumbai, Bali and Jakarta.
Currently victims of terrorism can claim up to $75,000, but legislation introduced by the Labor government last year was not retrospective.
It's estimated the cost of backdating the payments to 2001 will cost around $30 million, benefiting around 300 people.
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