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Jim Goodwin: Abuse survivor on the Government's apology, reparations for abuse-in-care survivors · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The government's national apology to victims of abuse in state
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: care will take place today. It comes along with a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: bill with a raft of new changes for protecting people
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: that are currently in state care, which will pass its
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: first reading today. It'll ban strip searches of children and
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: youth justice facilities. It'll create harsher restrictions for people working
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: with kids, and enforce better record keeping by government agencies,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: which has been a key theme or a failure, I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: should say, of those who've submitted on the Royal Commission.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Jim Goodwin is an abuse survivor. He's with us this morning.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Jim, good morning, Good morning, Ron, thank you for being
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: with me. How are you feeling today?
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Ah? Nervous, really thinking about it? Yeah, this is a
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: huge thing for a huge number of people. Yeah.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Why nervous?
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Ah? I hope they don't stuff it up. The potential
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: for a government to make yet more mistakes around survivors
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: and around care is massive.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Stuff up the apology or stuff up now do you
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: know the ones who are currently in care?
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: They won't stuff up the apology. That will be well done,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I think. But continuing to provide, how will they provide
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: support for survivors and what will they do about preventing
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: abuse and care in the future. That's what I'm worried about.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: The compensation issued.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: There's been some criticism that they haven't got that sorted
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: before the apology. Does that bother you or are you
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: more worried about them doing it right when they do it.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Compensation is important, but it's only part of what survivors need.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Survivors need to be able to access ongoing support, like counseling,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: support for their lives, and that's quite difficult for a
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: lot of survivors at the moment. So I hope that
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: the government will change that, but conversation is only a
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: part of it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair enough.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: For those who have been abused in state care or
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: in faith based institutions, in a school, stuff like that,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: who have then gone on to offend. What is your
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: view on that, because the society is grappling with this
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: question right about somebody who's been abused It was nothing
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to do with their not their fault. They were placed
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: in a situation and they go on to offend. Do
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: they get should they get more leniency? Would you have
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: a view on that?
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: It's offending. Abuse is a factor in offending. Maybe some
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: people should get leniency. Unfortunately, the bad people also claim
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: that they have had a terrible life and that's why
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: they've offended. What would be better is to people who
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: have been abused with support. And I'm thinking I mentioned
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: counseling before, and that will reduce the risk of offending.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I treated its source.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Not at the other end, what about boot camps that
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: you don't know?
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: A terrible idea, terrible idea never worked, will never work
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: based on a false premise that you can knock people
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: into shape, A really bad idea.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: What do we do with these kids then?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: If possible, well, if possible, we should work prodigiously to
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: keep them at home. Even if their home is pretty wonky,
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: it's still the home. It's what they know. So you
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: work to support their faros, support the people who care
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: about them, and try to keep people at home. Institutions
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: should be an absolute last resort.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Your abuse took place at christ College back in the
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, and it was from other students. Yeah, what
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: do you want to say to the people who abused you?
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Ah, they know who they are, they know what they did. Yeah,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: they can live with it. Jim, I've gone, I've gone
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: on and lived my life.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Jim. Jim, thank you very much for your time this morning.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Okay, all rank you, Jim Goodwin, their abuse survivor the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: apology happening at Parliament this afternoon.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
• 4:32
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