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Speaker 1: To a day of national apology to survivors of abuse

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Speaker 1: and care. Of course, the compensation still to be sought of,

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Speaker 1: but today a significant start, you would have thought. Cooper

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Speaker 1: Legal is representing more than sixteen hundred affected clients. Senior

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Speaker 1: Associated Senior Associate Lydia Ostahoff is with us.

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Speaker 2: Lydia morning, good morning, thanks for having me on, not.

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Speaker 1: At all the people you represent.

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Speaker 2: What's the feeling so far, Well, there's obviously it is

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Speaker 2: the monumental day, so it's the recognition of that and

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Speaker 2: we've come a long way to get to where we are.

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Speaker 2: But there's also in a sense of apprehension because an

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Speaker 2: apology means nothing if it doesn't come with a commitment

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Speaker 2: to change, and so our clients they want the government

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Speaker 2: to use this apology to show how this will not

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Speaker 2: happen in the future. And now we know that there's

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Speaker 2: not going to be an announcement about redress today. So

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Speaker 2: unfortunately that's been quite an upset for our clients because

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Speaker 2: that was what they were open for.

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Speaker 1: Was it unrealistic to expect? I mean, this is a

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Speaker 1: massive thing. Is it unrealistic to it to I mean,

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Speaker 1: given an apology is easier to deliver literally, is it

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Speaker 1: unrealistic to expect, you know, here's a check and here's

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Speaker 1: how we're going to do it. I mean, this takes

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Speaker 1: time and you want to do it right, don't you?

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Speaker 2: Yes? And I think what we've got to realize is, yes,

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Speaker 2: the final report was tabled in Parliament in July, but

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Speaker 2: the government, and this is successive government, have had the

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Speaker 2: interim redress reports since December twenty twenty one, so went

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Speaker 2: to we nearly three years that that've had to try

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Speaker 2: and prepare for a redress scheme. So I think trying

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Speaker 2: to look at the July date is actually keewing dates

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Speaker 2: a little bit. So we've had quite a lot of

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Speaker 2: time and that time hasn't been used.

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Speaker 1: The lawd changes announced yesterday do they help? Are they

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Speaker 1: significant or not?

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Speaker 2: To be honest with you, Mike, I think they're a

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Speaker 2: bit of smoke and mirriage, a bit of a distraction. Really,

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Speaker 2: children can still be scanner searched, there up searching. Yes,

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Speaker 2: we've been saying for years that's that's not a good thing.

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Speaker 2: But really the changes I think are deflecting from what

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Speaker 2: survivors have been calling for for months now, which is

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Speaker 2: redress and change and I think this is just a

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Speaker 2: drop in the bucket and it's not really going to

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Speaker 2: And even that, if you look at the press release

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Speaker 2: that went out, Minister chaur said this was about keeping

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Speaker 2: children safe within the home. There was not one change

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Speaker 2: to the law the children safe within the home. It

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Speaker 2: was about use justice residences, it was about records, it

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Speaker 2: was about disabled adults. How is that talking about children

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Speaker 2: keeping children safe in the home. I really just think

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Speaker 2: that was a distraction.

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Speaker 1: Do you think we're going to get closure? How many

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Speaker 1: years down the track do you think it'll be I

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Speaker 1: can get you back on this program and go We're done,

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Speaker 1: it's finished, everyone's happy. Or do you think that will

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Speaker 1: never happen.

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Speaker 2: I'd love to say that, Yes, three years from now,

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Speaker 2: you can get me on the program and say, Mike,

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Speaker 2: I've got no work. I'm starting a new area of law.

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Speaker 2: I would love that. But unfortunately, at the moment, at

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Speaker 2: the rate that we're going, I think we're going to

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Speaker 2: be seeing this for the next decades. And I hate

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Speaker 2: to say that, but with small steps like what we

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Speaker 2: saw yesterday, that's not incremental change. That is not going

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Speaker 2: to keep children safe.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate you time very much. Lydia Ostaff who's there Cooper

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Speaker 1: Legal Senior Association. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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