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Speaker 1: Job Mission with Jonesy and Amanda Well.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy nine, the ghost train ride at Sydneys

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Speaker 2: Luna Park caught fire, killing six children and one adult.

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Speaker 1: Morse school mates were among the seven.

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Speaker 2: I were right in front of me.

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Speaker 1: Everything you've loved has gone.

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Speaker 2: Everybody said it wasnay accident. It's taken me in forty

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Speaker 2: years to finally tell my story.

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Speaker 1: I was one of the first detectives on the scene.

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Speaker 1: I've never spoken publicly. If I was a result of

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Speaker 1: another difficult form.

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Speaker 3: If the feesbox was the cause, how is it one

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Speaker 3: of the only things still standing?

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Speaker 1: What do you think calls this fire pass? The cover

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Speaker 1: up was Ron and Redel.

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Speaker 2: There is somebody that got away with murder.

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Speaker 1: It's time for the truth.

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Speaker 2: Despite a coronal inquiry, the cause of the fire has

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Speaker 2: never been determined. Forty two years later, Walkley Award winning

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Speaker 2: journalist Caro Meldrem Hannah gave us some answers on the

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Speaker 2: ABC show Exposed and a New Use. Today, more witnesses

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Speaker 2: are coming forward, demanding a government inquiry to tell us more.

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Speaker 2: Caro Meldrim Hannah, Hello, good morning guys.

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Speaker 3: How are you?

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Speaker 1: Oh? What's something A bit tired.

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Speaker 3: Actually, yeah, you would better.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, it's been a bit of a grueling ride,

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Speaker 1: this one. I think because of the number of people

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Speaker 1: affected and the ripple effect of this is justly, to

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Speaker 1: be honest, it's more profound than I predicted. That I

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Speaker 1: thought than that I appreciated. So many people that were

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Speaker 1: there that night, so many people that were working there

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Speaker 1: that night, so many people that weren't spoken to by police,

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Speaker 1: who weren't interviewed, who weren't included at the inquest in,

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Speaker 1: so many friends of the boys and the children who died,

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Speaker 1: and family members that have got in contact. It's just enormous.

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Speaker 1: It's sort of like this event that's broken the heart

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Speaker 1: of a city, and when we're dealing with all of

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Speaker 1: that feedback.

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Speaker 3: And we've got three and you've got the three new

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Speaker 3: witnesses of which we saw on the seven thirty report.

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Speaker 3: And what we're seeing now is these people they've had

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Speaker 3: forty two years and they were never asked to give

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Speaker 3: a police statement, and all their stories are saying the

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Speaker 3: same thing, Kerosene. These bikey type individuals seen on the

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Speaker 3: night and the police never asked them for their statement.

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Speaker 1: It's quite incredible. Two of the three new witnesses that

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Speaker 1: we've had on the program last night on seven point

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Speaker 1: thirty on the ABC. Two of them worked at Luna Park.

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Speaker 1: One of them had worked there for years, and she

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Speaker 1: was at Luna Park that night. She was working in

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Speaker 1: the chip bar actually, and as she was standing there,

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Speaker 1: you know, thrying the chips, she distinctly remembers a group

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Speaker 1: of Vikings walking past. She even remembers, you know, them

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Speaker 1: having long hair. She remembers them wearing boots, and she

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Speaker 1: remembers them turning around and looking at her and they

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Speaker 1: were laughing. It's sort of imprinted in her memory. And

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Speaker 1: when she watched the documentary series a few weeks ago,

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Speaker 1: she thought, oh my goodness. She had no idea that

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Speaker 1: other people had seen these bugies too. She thought it

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Speaker 1: was just her and the police never contacted her. Then,

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Speaker 1: they never got her details. Despite all of the contact

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Speaker 1: details of staff members, they were just sitting in the

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Speaker 1: front office and as you remember, Bundy cards, you put

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Speaker 1: your clock on and clock off with them. So the

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Speaker 1: police were there the next day. The office was full

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Speaker 1: of all of these cards showing who was working there

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Speaker 1: that night. But police just failed to contact so many

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Speaker 1: of them. I mean just a gross failure and.

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Speaker 3: The arrogance as well. Caro about the corruption which went

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Speaker 3: right to the top, which was at the top, which

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Speaker 3: was documented in the Exposed series, but particularly the arrogance

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Speaker 3: was less doubt. He was one of like a homeless

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Speaker 3: kid that was staying at a refuge and they went

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Speaker 3: out for a bit of a night at Luna Park.

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Speaker 3: He made a statement and he was told to change

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Speaker 3: his statement. And then such was the arrogance of the

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Speaker 3: police back then. They charged him with making a false statement.

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Speaker 1: So from one, I'm that charged him for making a

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Speaker 1: false statement, but he was actually he says, he was

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Speaker 1: telling the truth in the first instance, So like do

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Speaker 1: you see the riddle of it? He was charged for

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Speaker 1: telling the truth essentially and told that his truth was

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Speaker 1: a lie. Look, a lot of people according to his

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Speaker 1: conviction to be quashed. I mean even the initial the

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Speaker 1: first detectives that interviewed him and took took down lest

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Speaker 1: our statements faithfully took down the detailed physical descriptions, you know,

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Speaker 1: with the earring and the starff tattoo on the ear lob.

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Speaker 1: He watched the series and said and agreed that that

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Speaker 1: conviction should be quashed. There was just no reason to

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Speaker 1: charge a seventeen year old boy without offense. There were

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Speaker 1: far greater things and more important things to investigate and pursue,

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Speaker 1: i e. The Viking the people had seen than charging

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Speaker 1: and charging them possibly with something, than charging a seventeen

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Speaker 1: year old kid with what appears to have been telling

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Speaker 1: the truth. Because now we've got another two people, adults

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Speaker 1: on top, who've come forward to say they saw those

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Speaker 1: same this same group of Vikings as well. So it

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Speaker 1: appears leeds Dable was on pretty strong ground.

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Speaker 2: Well with what we now know Caro and this roiling

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Speaker 2: anger and distress this story, surely there'll be an inquiry.

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Speaker 1: Well, if there's a couple of things going on, Amanda,

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Speaker 1: the New South Wales Police, they're unsolved homicide Squad, that

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Speaker 1: a task force has been set up and they are

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Speaker 1: looking at this. I don't know to what extent. And

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Speaker 1: we know that the New South Wales Coroner has not

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Speaker 1: called an inquest, she has directed that New South Wales

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Speaker 1: Police review its initial investigation and for some of the

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Speaker 1: families that has caused some concern to the families of

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Speaker 1: the victims and look obvious the first one to say

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Speaker 1: that our police force now is not our police force.

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Speaker 1: Then there are very fine police officers in there and

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Speaker 1: the corruption is most certainly you cannot compare the levels

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Speaker 1: then now it's just not the same, and I think

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Speaker 1: we should have faced at the police will do, will

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Speaker 1: do an honest and a good job on this now.

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Speaker 1: But the families are concern that, well, look, if this

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Speaker 1: is just a review of the original investigation from what

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Speaker 1: we understand, then is that going to look at the

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Speaker 1: police corruption because this investigation appears to have been corrupted

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Speaker 1: from the very beginning by the officer in charge. He

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Speaker 1: got up and told us all it was an electrical

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Speaker 1: fault when it bloody well wasn't. Now if the investigation

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Speaker 1: isn't done afresh again and witnesses interviewed afresh again, not

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Speaker 1: just relying on what they said back then, because we

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Speaker 1: know witnesses said I told police about the bykers that

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Speaker 1: they never put it in my statement. So police can't

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Speaker 1: just rely on that original investigation. It does need to

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Speaker 1: be fresh and it must include the police corruption so

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Speaker 1: that the police are on one side. And I'm very

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Speaker 1: hopeful that police corruption is going to be investigated and

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Speaker 1: that there will be a corruption investigation, because there needs

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Speaker 1: to be and that's what the families are calling for. Secondly,

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Speaker 1: there are calls for a government inquiry because of that

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Speaker 1: corruption and what you guys rightly pointed out going right

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Speaker 1: to the top were the allegations right to the top

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Speaker 1: with the former premier level ran with a High Court judge.

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Speaker 1: So the call is, well, the police start looking at

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Speaker 1: that and they're not, and we can't just let that go.

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Speaker 1: That must be looked into. This was a crime boss

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Speaker 1: allegedly working with the former premier and a High Court

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Speaker 1: judge to get his hands on Luna Park, and this

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Speaker 1: company that he was connected to did set their hands

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Speaker 1: on that land after the fire. So the calls are

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Speaker 1: for a special Commission of inquiry with all the powers

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Speaker 1: of a royal commission to once and for all resolve

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Speaker 1: this and look into it. And the family is particularly

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Speaker 1: Jenny Gobson, who to two little boys, yeah and her husband.

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Speaker 1: She is not giving up. She's gone to Parliament House

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Speaker 1: in New South Wales. She was there last week for meetings.

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Speaker 1: She is absolutely on a mission and I think the

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Speaker 1: entire country is supporting her.

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Speaker 3: And when you think about Jenny Godson's story, you go

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Speaker 3: to Luna Park and many of us of this age

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Speaker 3: have fond memories of Luna Park. You buy two ice

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Speaker 3: creams for your family, they go in the ghost train

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Speaker 3: and then they never come out. They never came back,

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Speaker 3: and she's just standing there and they're gone. The family's gone,

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Speaker 3: and there's no explanation other than it was an electrical fault.

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Speaker 3: Just for her alone. Wouldn't it be great for the

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Speaker 3: police to say, Okay, you know what, it was corrupt

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Speaker 3: back then. It's not corrupt now, but yes that was

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Speaker 3: deliberately yes, sorry, And if she gets if there's compensation

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Speaker 3: coming her way, I'm a taxpayer, I'm happy that my

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Speaker 3: tax would go to a compensation for her because she

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Speaker 3: lost her whole family.

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Speaker 1: Yes, look, you know, and she's not after compensation. She

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Speaker 1: could couldn't care less.

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Speaker 3: That's just the dollar.

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Speaker 1: She's just it's that she her family, and you know

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Speaker 1: she In this letter she wrote to the premiere of

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Speaker 1: New South Wales, she wrote, I had to watch my

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Speaker 1: family burn before my eyes. You know, imagine watching that,

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Speaker 1: having to endure that, and then on top of that,

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Speaker 1: having to endure decades of this injustice, decades of silence,

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Speaker 1: of stonewalling. It's soul destroying, it's you know, I get

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Speaker 1: emotional talking about her, she said, very woman.

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Speaker 3: Well good on you, Cara. You know, we live in

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Speaker 3: a state where there's a speed camera around every corner.

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Speaker 3: But seven people die in a suspicious fire and everyone's saying, oh,

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Speaker 3: there's nothing to see here, what is wrong with us?

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Speaker 1: Thank you?

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Speaker 3: It's such a great story.

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Speaker 1: Caro.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's a terrible story, but it's great that you've

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Speaker 3: brought it to light.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Jonesy and Amanda's xamination