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Speaker 1: Now to the report. The Royal Commission's Abuse and Care

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Speaker 1: Report has just been released and it makes for pretty

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Speaker 1: grim reading. It reveals the horrifying extent of abuse and

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Speaker 1: neglect of as many as two hundred thousand ki we

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Speaker 1: kids and young people between nineteen fifty and as recently

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Speaker 1: as twenty nineteen. Now the Commission has called this a

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Speaker 1: national disgrace. It's called on the government, the Pope and

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Speaker 1: the Archbishop of Canterbury to apologize for this. Newstorksb's political

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Speaker 1: report Damelza Jackson has been reading through the massive report.

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Speaker 1: High Demelza, Hello, okay, can you run us through some

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Speaker 1: of the findings?

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Speaker 2: Well, it has taken almost six years to put together

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Speaker 2: the evidence and the recommendations of this report. Its significance

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Speaker 2: cannot be stressed enough. It takes into account the stories

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Speaker 2: of about two three hundred survivors and the final document

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Speaker 2: itself actually weighs some fourteen care los. What it tells

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Speaker 2: us is that between nineteen fifty and twenty nineteen, and

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Speaker 2: estimated two hundred thousand children, young people and vulnerable adults

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Speaker 2: suffered at the hands of the state and faith based institutions.

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Speaker 2: The very same people who were charged with their care.

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Speaker 2: That's out of six hundred and fifty five thousand people

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Speaker 2: in the system during that time. And the actual extent

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Speaker 2: of the abuse could be worse than we will ever

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Speaker 2: know because of how poorly these institutions kept their records

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Speaker 2: and failed to listen to the complaints which came out

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Speaker 2: across decades.

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Speaker 1: All right, so, as far as we do know how

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Speaker 1: extensive was the abuse.

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Speaker 2: Well, this is unimaginable, widespread and severe physical, emotional, mental, sexual,

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Speaker 2: and medical abuse. Heather and the reports on words, what

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Speaker 2: we're talking about is a national disgrace. The stories involve

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Speaker 2: the sex trafficking of people in disability homes, the threat

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Speaker 2: of death through mock executions that wilderness retreats, and deaf

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Speaker 2: children being physically beaten for using sign language for patients

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Speaker 2: at the Kimberly Center ne Levin, the physical punishment was

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Speaker 2: so bad that the survivors have developed what they call

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Speaker 2: the Kimberly cringe, where they literally cower if they're approached

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Speaker 2: too quickly. That the consistency in the reports and in

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Speaker 2: the stories is really harrowing, and we know now that

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Speaker 2: for some it's unfortunately led them to being left in

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Speaker 2: unmarked graves outside of these institutions.

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Speaker 1: Okay, the Prime Minister has described he's read some of it.

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Speaker 1: He reckons some of this abuse basically amounts to torture.

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Speaker 1: Is that what it read like?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? I mean on behalf of the government. Chris Luxon

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Speaker 2: has taken this major step of acknowledging that what happened

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Speaker 2: at the Lake Alice Child in Unit, Child and Adolescent

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Speaker 2: Unit amounts to torture. He said that children and young

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Speaker 2: people there were given electric shocks without pain relief and

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Speaker 2: these very painful Paralda Hyde injections, but not for medical reasons.

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Speaker 2: It was for punishment and control. I imagine this will

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Speaker 2: mean quite a lot to the survivors of Lake Alice

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Speaker 2: to finally have this acknowledge that what they went through

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Speaker 2: was torture, because they've been pushing for this for years,

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Speaker 2: and the Prime Minister went out of his way to

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Speaker 2: thank them for their determination and bringing their suffering to light.

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Speaker 1: Commissions put a financial cost on this abuse, hasn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So the report highlights that because of the trauma,

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Speaker 2: so many people have really lost their right to enjoyment

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Speaker 2: in life, and so many of the survivors never really

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Speaker 2: had proper educations or employment opportunities, and then there's the

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Speaker 2: intergenerational harm to account for as well. All up, the

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Speaker 2: report estimates the total social cost is up to two

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Speaker 2: hundred and seventeen billion dollars for the country, and for

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Speaker 2: the survivors the lifetime cost of having been abused is

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Speaker 2: about eight hundred and fifty seven thousand dollars.

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Speaker 1: I mean, almost as important as hearing what's happened is

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Speaker 1: knowing how to stop it. So what are the recommendations

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Speaker 1: so that this stuff doesn't happen again?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a staggering one hundred and thirty eight recommendations

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Speaker 2: and this report alone, and then there's ninety five separate

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Speaker 2: recommendations from an earlier report which is all about redress.

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Speaker 2: So the immediate call from what I'm reading is for

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Speaker 2: the government to put in place that redress system for survivors.

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Speaker 2: These conversations about payouts and apologies have just gone on

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Speaker 2: for so long that some people have actually died while

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Speaker 2: they have been waiting, So that will probably be the

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Speaker 2: first step. The government is also being told to set

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Speaker 2: up an independent agency which will take over the responsibility

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Speaker 2: of commissioning those care and protection and youth justice services.

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Speaker 2: This would essentially take away any power from Auditing Automatiqui,

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Speaker 2: which previously has been in control, and that would mean

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Speaker 2: the state really isn't looking after these children anymore. From

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Speaker 2: what I'm reading, it's basically the inquiry saying the buck

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Speaker 2: stops here.

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Speaker 1: So we are talking about shutting down aud on Atomitici.

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Speaker 2: I imagine that the Ministry for Children would still exist

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Speaker 2: in some way, but when it comes to deciding how

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Speaker 2: that care is given to these children, commissioning that care, yep,

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Speaker 2: they would have to take their hands off and have

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Speaker 2: that responsibility investment moved this independent agency.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Demelza, thank you. I really appreciate you going through

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Speaker 1: that for us. It's Develoge at Jackson News Talk zb's

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Speaker 1: political reporter.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 2: News Talk ZEDB from four pm weekdays, or follow the

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Speaker 2: podcast on iHeartRadio