Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB Political Editor on how the Government is preparing its response to the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care

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Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB Political Editor on how the Government is preparing its response to the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Government's preparing its response to the Royal Commission into Abuse
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: in State Care report, which was released yesterday. You would
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: have heard about this more than it's six hundred thousand
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in care. Two hundred thousand were abused, that's one in three.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: There are one hundred and thirty eight recommendations in this report,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: so a lot to respond to news talks there be.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Political editor Jason Walls is with us this morning. Jason,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Good morning. Derek Ching in the Herald did a great
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: peace on this. Many of these recommendations seem to fly
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in the face of the government's policy platform or agenda.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yes, good morning. There are a number of things that
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: were recommended in the report that do overlap in some
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: ways with what the government is doing today in terms
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: of what its policy agenda is. For example, I mean
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: a few people have made the point that the abuse
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: in state care, you know, it outlines a number of
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: what happens in state care. And then this weekend the
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: government is launching its military youth academies, which some people
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: have actually drawn a comparison to, and other things to
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: do with the Treaty of Whitehonguy and whatnot. So it's
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: an interesting piece. I would say that, yes, you can
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: see why some people might be making these arguments, but
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  Speaker 2: at the same time, I mean arguments around gangs. I
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: think that it's a hard comparison to make at the
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: best time there. But in terms of the for example,
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  Speaker 2: this weekend, in terms of the military academy, I think
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  Speaker 2: the government will be arguing that they'll be using the
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  Speaker 2: report to learn lessons about what happened in the past,
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  Speaker 2: so it can't happen again. They've made the case for
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: these academies quite clearly, and I don't think because of
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: the report that they're going to go away. So you
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  Speaker 2: can understand why some people are making these comparisons, and
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I do think that that's why some people that were
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: in the public garalery yesterday yelled shame as Karen Shaw
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  Speaker 2: started talking in the House yesterday during her speech.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw that many gang members were in state here.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Not all of them, and not everyone who was in
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  Speaker 1: state here went on to be a gang member, but
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: many members were in state here. Is it going to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: be politically difficult for the government to pay compensation to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: people if they are currently in a gang.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I think there are a number of hoops that the
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  Speaker 2: government has to jump through here, and it's not going
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: to be easy by any means. It was hard to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: pin the Prime Minister down on this question yesterday in
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: terms of the financial compensation. Obviously it's going to cost
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: a lot of money. He didn't have an estimate on
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: how much, and he said, frankly, it doesn't matter at
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  Speaker 2: this stage. The government was willing to do that, but
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  Speaker 2: the idea of doing that, I mean, I think that
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  Speaker 2: the government will be able to separate the person from
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the gang when it comes to the sort of situation
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  Speaker 2: and be able to look at what happened in the
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: past and be able to move forward in a way.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Jason, thank you for that. Jason Wall's News talksb's political editor.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: For more from News TALKSB, listen live on air or online,
• 2:52
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• 2:54
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