00:02Nothing will bring their girls home, and now another crushing blow.
00:08It's heartbreaking.
00:09Yep.
00:11It destroys you.
00:13A backpacking rite of passage turned a nightmare.
00:1619-year-olds Bianca Jones and Holly Morton Bowles died after drinking liquor tainted with
00:22methanol at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng in November 2024.
00:27Four other foreign tourists also died.
00:31Now, Lao authorities have indicated the alleged perpetrators will only be charged with operating
00:36a business illegally and selling goods hazardous to health.
00:40The maximum penalty?
00:42One year in jail.
00:44Less than a year in jail and $1,600 to anyone of any reasonableness just is not right.
00:52Someone needs to pay a reasonable penalty for killing our daughters.
00:57They're clearly hiding something with their so-called investigation.
01:03The Australian government too is frustrated, calling in the Lao ambassador to please explain.
01:10A special envoy has also been dispatched to Laos, and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong
01:16will speak with her counterpart at a meeting of ASEAN next week.
01:19Do you have anything you'd like to say?
01:21We expect, if there's a tragedy like this, that someone will be held accountable.
01:27And we expect from the Lao authorities better than this.
01:30The teenagers' families calling on the government to withdraw aid to Laos and to issue a clear
01:36direction to young people not to travel there.
01:39We'll have more to say in due course about this.
01:43To the Laos government, make sure that there is justice delivered to the perpetrators of
01:49the people that killed our daughters.
01:50who caused…
01:51Who caused our collapse.
01:52Who caused our terror.
01:53…
01:54You
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