Erica Stanford: Lead coordination minister for the redress for the Lake Alice survivors on the budget for the redress

The Government is defending its budgeting for the torture redress of Lake Alice survivors. 

It's set aside more than $22 million for eligible survivors who were tortured at the psychiatric hospital in the 1970s. 

They'll be able to choose between a one-off $150 thousand payment or apply for independently assessed redress. 

Lead coordination minister Erica Stanford told Heather du Plessis-Allan it was a hard call to settle on $150 thousand. 

She says there's no precedent for this situation anywhere in the world – other countries have paid out for torture in very different circumstance and the victims were adults. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So victims of Lake Alice have finally found out how
much COMPO they're going to be getting. It's either a
one off, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars rapid payment,
or they can have their case heard and judged and
potentially even get more. The lead coordination Minister Erica Stanford
is with us Erica.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, good morning now, Erica.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
One hundred and fifty thousand is more than has ever
been paid out to victims like this, but it sounds
like some of them are disappointed because they were expecting millions.
Is that right?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
That is right? And I said yesterday no amount we
are ever going to pay will ever make up for
what happened to children at Lake Alice. And I also
said yesterday that I know that that announcement changed many lives,
and there are many people are extraordinarily grateful. But look,
we always knew that there was some that we were
going to let down. And that's a hard part of

(00:43):
this job.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
How did you get to one fifty thousand? How did
you decide that?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Again, really hard call to make because this is really
the first time this has happened. There is no precedent
around the world. There are some other countries who have
paid out for torture, but only a couple very very
different circumstances, and they were adults, and so that's similar
sort of amounts. But really it is a tough call

(01:08):
to make because it just isn't a precedent at all.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Is it going to be enough? Are you going to
have enough money? Because it looks to me like you've
maybe budgeted for about one hundred and fifty victims. There
may be as many as two hundred out there.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
We again, we don't know how many there are. We
have sort of looked at around about one hundred and
twenty one hundred and fifty, but we really aren't aren't sure.
But I think with that amount we have budget enough.
And that includes the arbiter and all of the costs
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Okay, now does the set of precedent for anybody else
who's caught up in the state abuse inquiry as to
how much they're going to get?

Speaker 2 (01:47):
No, we wanted to be very clear yesterday. This is
entirely different and entirely separate. Most of these Lakelis victims
have already received their compensate or there your compensation already
their redress, I should say, And this is a new
material circumstance because the state has acknowledged that they were tortured,

(02:10):
and that triggers a separate thing, and this is we
looked at this separately. There are separate things that we considered.
We wanted to make it very clear yesterday in my
remarks that this will have no bearing on what we
think about in the future.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Brilliant, Hey, Eric, thank you very much, really appreciated. Eric Stanford,
Lead Coordination Minister. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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