First $150,000 government redress payments made to Lake Alice survivors

Lake Alice survivor Robyn Dandy has received her rapid redress payment. Photo / Jimmy Ellingham RNZ

By Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ

Fifteen survivors of the Lake Alice child and adolescent unit - the Rangitīkei psychiatric institution where children were tortured in the 1970s - have so far received $150,000 government rapid redress payments.

The payments, announced in December, were open to survivors injected with the painful paralysing drug paraldehyde or who received electroconvulsive therapy.

It was part of a $22.68 million package for Lake Alice survivors, who can either opt for the payments or get a free lawyer and head to arbitration.

The first five rapid payments were made on Monday, March 3, and the following 10 throughout the week. Survivors have until September to register their interest.

Last month the Government confirmed that 77 survivors were eligible for these redress claims.

But the approach has faced criticism for excluding people who also received electric shocks or were injected with drugs at other institutions.

Robyn Dandy, who was injected with paraldehyde at Lake Alice in 1972, said she had received her rapid payment money this week.

She has welcomed the payments, saying it allowed her to realise her dream of buying a house bus or similar form of transport and travelling around New Zealand.

This was a promise she made to her late grandson Kahn Petch, who was 6 when he died in a house fire in November 2001.

“I know we deserve a lot more for what we went through,” Dandy said.

“I understand that but I think what the Government has offered is more than what I thought we’d ever get.

“I can do things I would not be able to do otherwise.”

Dandy said that as well as realising her dream, she could put aside money for a rainy day and in her vet account for her animals.

- RNZ