00:00Emotional scenes outside the Supreme Court in Hobart as a historic class action comes to an end.
00:09The court approving a $75 million compensation payment to 129 former detainees of the Ashley Youth Detention Centre.
00:19Today finally they're being listened to, they're being heard, they're being believed
00:24and I can tell you that that is probably as important if not more important than the monetary compensation that they will receive.
00:32It was the state's first class action, covering more than 60 years of sexual and physical abuse allegations.
00:39The victim survivors will receive payments ranging from $200,000 to $1 million and they'll be offered financial counselling.
00:48We've seen in previous individual settlements that clients can just blow the money.
00:54They've never had money, they don't know how to deal with the money.
00:58Many of them have debts, many of them have substance abuse issues.
01:02Watching today's proceedings was Alicia who doesn't want to use her last name.
01:07She worked at the centre in 2019 and has been advocating for it to close.
01:12Peter Gutwin promised me in 2021 that the centre would be closed by 2024.
01:18I hold the government to that promise.
01:23I expect them to close Ashley imminently.
01:26The Premier Jeremy Rockleaf has written to the victim survivors to apologise for the abuse.
01:31But it's unlikely the centre will close any earlier than mid-2026.
01:37The thing that is most disturbing to us today is that we've seen since the closure of Ashley was announced and yet to be implemented,
01:48we've had clients coming forward who've been in Ashley in the last three or four years who also allege abuse.
01:55We want to see Ashley closed as soon as possible.
01:59In the meantime the Minister and the Department are very focused on delivering new therapeutic models of care and new therapeutic facilities.
02:09It's hoped the members of the class action will start receiving the compensation from mid-next year.
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