'Everyone else is just left in the cold' - Call for broader redress for abuse survivors

• Cabinet paper about Lake Alice compensation says torture can't be ruled out at other psychiatric institutions
• Top lawyer says redress should be available to all victims of torture, no matter where they experienced it
• Minister says police should investigate new allegations of torture
• Lake Alice survivor advocate wants compensation for second-degree torture

A just-released cabinet paper about rapid torture redress payments to survivors of the Lake Alice child and adolescent unit in the 1970s says it's not possible to rule out torture at other locations.

That has left a leading human rights lawyer wondering why survivors from psychiatric institutions apart from Lake Alice can only now claim what she says is measly compensation.

Just before Christmas the government announced that survivors of the Lake Alice unit who were tortured by receiving electric shocks or paralysing drugs were eligible for $150,000 compensation payments, or a free lawyer for arbitration.

Survivors of other institutions, such as Porirua or Oakley hospitals, where shocks - ECT as it is known - and the drug paraldehdye were used are not eligible for the payments.

This has left Wellington lawyer Sonja Cooper, from Cooper Legal, frustrated.

"This is a poor response," she said. "Cynically, the government has selected the small possible cohort of survivors to do right by and everyone else is just left in the cold."

In the cabinet paper, below blanked out advice from Crown Law, the minister leading the government's response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in care, Erica Stanford, said it was not possible to rule out torture at other locations.

She said specific allegations should be referred to police, although she acknowledged many survivors don't trust police after previous complaints were badly handled.

Cooper, who has represented many abuse survivors over 30 years, can't understand the need for this as investigations have documented, for example, the use of paraldehyde in Oakley.

"Why do the clients have to go through a police investigation before this government will do anything?

"To me it's just an invitation for us to litigate this, to take it to the UN, to ask the Ombudsman to investigate. This is not something we are going to just take."

Survivors who experienced shocks and paralysing drugs would typically get just a few thousand dollars in redress.

Now, those in the Lake Alice unit could get $150,000 for experiencing the same thing, Cooper said.

"We've had clients in the anomalous position of being in the Lake Alice adolescent unit and then being in other psychiatric hospitals, so they're eligible for both processes and get maybe $6000 or $4000 from the Ministry of Health for identical experiences [elsewhere] to what they suffered at the Lake Alice adolescent unit."

Cooper Legal would seek a judicial review for a ruling that people who suffered alike should be treated alike.

Mike Ferriss, from watchdog group the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, said the lives of people in the Lake Alice unit for even a short time were affected, whether they received ECT or paralysing injections, or not.

He had written the to the UN outlining what the commission saw as shortcomings with the rapid redress scheme for Lake Alice survivors.

"One of the points we raised was what's called second-degree torture, which is being forced to watch someone else being electric shocked.

"That happened on several occasions and was devastating to those made to watch it."

In a statement Stanford said the rapid redress scheme for Lake Alice met a government commitment to prioritise compensation for the abhorrent events there under unit lead psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks.

"The Royal Commission did a case study into the Lake Alice Unit but did not make specific findings of torture at other locations," Stanford said.

"It is not appropriate for a minister to determine whether it did or did not occur elsewhere. Police are best placed to investigate specific allegations of torture."

The minister referred to the definition of torture in the UN convention against torture as being an act that intentionally inflicts severe physical or mental pain or suffering, for reasons including punishment and intimidation.

So far 77 Lake Alice survivors have been confirmed as eligible for redress claims, and some have opted for the $150,000 rapid payments.

Others, such as Karilyn Wildbore, are seeking arbitration.

Making sure she met the criteria set by the government opened old wounds as she confirmed she was injected with paraldehyde, after retrieving her file from a lawyer, she said.

"The process is going to be absolutely a nightmare," she said.

"I got my files back from Grant Cameron from when I was in Lake Alice. It's brought back some horrendous memories that I honestly have totally blacked out of my memory."

Wildbore also wasn't sure why rapid redress for torture was only available to a narrow range of abuse victims.

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