In a historic first, the Supreme Court of Tasmania has approved $75 million in compensation for people who suffered abuse while detained at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. While there were celebrations outside court after the settlement of the class action, it's spurred renewed calls for the government to close the detention centre immediately.
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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.