Inquiry into the provision and regulation of supported accommodation in Queensland
Submission No: 188
Submitted by: po (submitted by Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion) Publication:
Attachments:
Submitter Comments:
p
Queensland
Submission Interview —- 7 LUCY 2/02/2024 Cal oleae
Transcript
00:00:01 EN (QA!) Basically, yeah, the inquiry is interested in hearing about supported accommodation. Sort of like what you asked. And that’s because these places have been running for a fair while now and they’re having a review to see if things need changing. 00:01:01 Yep, ok.
00:00:31 (QAI) And yeah, | think it's like a great opportunity. You live
here. So, like, people who live here know the best about what it’s like. So, some of the things that they’re interested in hearing about is like the food, because you pay for the food. Is it good? Do you get enough? Is it value for money? Is it healthy? They also want to know about the rooms. So, do you have enough space? Is it too hot or too cold? And, they want to hear about the services. So, like is it a nice place to live? Do you have everything you need here? 00:00:50 NN: ~=§ Does it feel safe? Are you comfortable? All that business. 00:00:53 EEN (QA!) So yeah, that’s the gist of of what the inquiry is looking into. So, you mentioned you’ve moved here in June last year? 00:01:04 Yeah, June yeah. 00:00:53 aa (QAI) And you’re wanting to… you think you wanna, You wanna get to the beach?
00:01:11 aa Yeah. My, | | wanna be right near the beach. Yeah, you
know. Have my own place, something that even if there’s a unit or a caravan, you know. 00:01:17 MY (QA!) Where do you think that might be like in Brisbane or
Gold Coast or something?
advocacy for people with disability ABN 97 627 908 2¢
PRR ¢ cai@qai.org.au wqai.org.au | South Central Commercial, L2 43 Peel St (PO Box 3384), South Brisbane (Meanjin) QLD 4101
00:01:22 Somewhere about Redcliffe maybe, Noosa, but then
there’s so expensive right now.
00:01:24 (QAI) Yeah, it's cra‐‐ I think it's starting to come down a bit,
but. It’s been crazy hey.
00:01:30 Yeah, Redcliffe is all right.
00:01:34 (QAI) Redcliffe's pretty nice. Bit more affordable. Yeah, and so.
What’s like what’s stopping you doing that, like do you…
00:01:47 Umm, it’s probably because. We’re at the stage of I’ve
moved around a lot in my life. I mean, probably about 30
times in my life. Or from New South Wales, around NSW
all the way up to Mackay. Mackay to Scarborough.
Scarborough to Radcliffe. Just everywhere I’ve Cleveland
and Morayfield. Yeah, Kingaroy.
00:02:13 (QAI) And why? Why so much moving?
00:02:17 I don’t know why I think it’s just because my dad used to
move us around a lot when I was younger, you know?
Because, you know, we had a beautiful place. That
Kurunjang Heights 8 1/2 acres and yeah, it pretty much
the only reason why I moved, it was because, well, my
sister was stealing money from my dad… You know, and
what actually happened was that my sister made false
allegations that some guy drugged us down the dam
when I was about four or five, but it never happened.
We, my dad, sold the place, we went up to Mackay and I
had to tell my dad the truthful stuff. When I was only
young, you know, my sister was stealing from my dad.
Over three years five and a half grand gone, you know,
gone. And now I got accused of stealing the whole lot.
That’s why me and my sister don’t talk much anymore.
We haven’t been close for the last 16 years.
00:03:17 (QAI) Yeah. OK. And did you move to cause it
was what you could have find when you wanted to come
back to busy or like how did you end up living here?
00:03:30 Well, I yeah. Well, because I had to get away from my
Dad. It was because I was spending a lot of money on
him and my mum. Yeah, you know, and all I got was
treated like crap…
00:03:49 (QAI) OK, you're supporting them, were you?
00:03:51 I was literally helping him out. Yeah. Buying his cigars,
giving him money for his bedding. You know, buying
DVD’s, movies that he likes and all that stuff. I just done a
lot for them, you know.
00:04:06 (QAI) And how did? How did you afford that? Were you using‐‐
was it like your pension that you know?
00:04:09 Yeah, my pension and stuff. I was, I was paying only $200
a fortnight, but I also was buying food. Even though I
didn’t have to buy food, I bought food for them anyway.
And yeah, bought them, you know, and thought, you
know, they were gonna treat me right and. And my
stepdad just started I’m abusing me. You know, treating
me like dirt, you know? And it got to the point where I
had to get out of there. And this is why I came here. I I
had nowhere else to go and I phoned up and said
I need a place, you know. And she said, Yep, kind of come
here and.
00:04:47 (QAI) How did you know? How did you get J number?
00:04:49 It was just on what you call… you know online. Google.
Yeah, Google search and stuff.
00:04:58 (QAI) You're just searching for like accommodation, Brisbane.
00:05:00 Yeah, accommodation. Yeah. Any accommodation. It just
didn’t… I didn’t care where, where I went.
00:05:05 (QAI) So you could find it quickly and easily. That’s why I ended
up living here?
00:05:09 (QAI) You just found it online and they just said yep come on
in? You didn’t have to like, go through a long process. No,
no, no.
00:05:17 This place seems like a bit of a character… what’s living
here like?
00:05:21 Well, living here, it has its ups and downs, you know, I
mean it it be, you know, I think a lot of a lot of us, we get
along with each other really well. You know, we have a,
we have probably only one person I was telling you about
that been causing a lot of trouble and… But he’s gonna
go hopefully this week. Hopefully today. Hopefully. And
then after that, it’s gonna be a lot more better you know.
00:05:52 (QAI) What kind of trouble?
00:05:53 Ohh well, we had the police here quite a lot because he
was yelling out, yelling out to the neighbours sort of
stuff, causing a lot of trouble. Yeah, and all of us were,
just had enough of him, you know? Making threats a
whole lot and yeah, but he’s going anyway, so yeah.
00:06:16 (QAI) How long? Sorry.
00:06:17 Did the did the staff do anything to try and manage it?
00:06:21 Well, we we put put in a what do you call a… a reporting
we put in. So they put in so many, so many reports in
about him, all the stuff and‐‐
00:06:32 (QAI) So yeah, so you guys reported to staff, or the staff…?
00:06:34 Well, I reported to the staff quite quite a number of
times, but also the staff knew about it, the staff tried to
tell him to calm‐‐ to quiet down, the whole lot, but he
doesn’t listen, you know? Yeah.
00:06:50 (QAI) So how long did it take for them to kick him out? Once it
started being a problem?
00:06:56 Well… I think it’s because when he tried to set his room
on fire or stuff. Yeah, that was a couple of days ago.
00:07:05 (QAI) That was the final straw you think?
00:07:05 That was the final straw, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And
yeah, but yeah, now doin some, something
about it. It’s good that she’s doing’, because she‐‐ you’ve
gotta get rid of the trouble. You know. You know, I’ve I’ve
spoken to the quite a few times, you know, telling
her about Andrew going off, him waking us up early
hours of the morning, all the stuff. Yeah, yeah, so yeah.
No, it’s been it’s been going on for a couple of months,
you know, and it got to the point where I haven’t had
much sleep. Yeah, because I get get woken up at 5:00 in
the morning and he’s yelling out and like, you can hear
him. Yeah.
00:07:48 (QAI) Which‐‐ were you in a a long way away from him or
were you sharing a bedroom with him, or?
00:07:52 No, I was really close by, you know.
00:07:54 (QAI) Yeah. Are you up in that building up there? Is he up there
too?
00:08:03 He was. He was sharing a room with Robert. At the end
room, stuff you know and yeah, you know a lot of
neighbours made complaints, all the staff told, told
management or staff.
00:08:11 (QAI) Do you—So, you share a room here do you?
00:08:13 I’ve got my own room. Yeah, it’s great. Yeah, it is. Yeah,
I’ve got mine set up. You know, I’ve got mine. Well, I’ve,
I’ve. I’ve got TV from Brisbane buy, sell, swap for nothing.
Samsung TV. Smart TV. Got it for nothing. I I like getting
bargains, you know? Yeah, but I’ve got my own room and
it’s set up, and I’ve got my own, like, little my couch and
stuff. Yeah, set up like, like, you know, got my got
everything. All what I need. You know, my bar fridge, a
whole lot. And I like living in, in that room, all the stuff.
00:08:49 (QAI) So you like your room? It’s a good room?
00:08:55 It’s a good room… The only thing is it does‐‐ is it gets a bit
too hot in the afternoon, and I wouldn’t mind a bit‐‐ I’ve
got a fan in my room, but it doesn’t do anything in the
afternoon, you know, especially when it’s that hot. Yeah,
it just, you know, it’s what he called—
00:09:06 (QAI) Pedestal? Is it just a small fan or? So, there's no, there's
no like ceiling fan or?
00:09:16 No, no.
00:09:17 (QAI) Yeah, you reckon that might be better. If there was?
00:09:19 Ohh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, it will be great. Yeah. Yeah, it
it. It wouldn make things a lot more cooler. Yeah. In my
room, all the stuff. Because I think in the morning, the
sun’s this side, and in the afternoons on my side.
00:09:36 (QAI) And does your room get cleaned or any like that like do
you get any help with that or?
00:09:42 I do my own cleaning. I know that well, the workers are
great. You know, they do a lot of they work. Work hard.
You know, but, you know, I like to do my own cleaning. Is
it gives me my own independence to do that.
00:09:57 (QAI) Yeah, cool. How many workers are there?
00:09:59 I don’t know. There’s quite quite a few there. Yeah, quite
quite a few. We have one, one day we have quite a few
workers and then it changes over. Then we have the
nighttime workers or stuff you.
00:10:13 (QAI) So there's always people here, you feel like most things
get done and everything’s going pretty well?
00:10:17 Oh, yeah, yeah. Everything gets done. You know, they,
they, they’re great. They all going good workers. They’re
hard. Yeah. Yeah, hard workers, they get everything all
done. They get toilets done. The whole lot, you know.
00:10:28 (QAI) So how often do the toilets get cleaned?
00:10:32 Probably twice a, twice a day.
00:10:32 (QAI) OK, that's pretty good isn’t it. And is there enough toilets
for everyone? Like, do you ever have to wait a long time?
00:10:41 No. No, clean toilets. Yeah, you got toilets downstairs.
Toilets upstairs, you know? Yeah. No, no problem at all.
00:10:50 Yeah. What’s the food like? And then we arrived just
before morning tea, but…
00:10:56 I I don’t really eat. I I buy my own food. I don’t, really. I
sometimes I do eat food here. Yeah, I I think the
breakfast would be like I dunnno breakfast is porridge
every morning. Yeah, but it’d be great for us it, you know,
I don’t eat porridge. I hate it. Absolutely hate porridge. It
would be great if we had something else, like big things.
00:11:17 (QAI) I couldn't. I couldn't eat it every day either.
00:11:19 Yeah, yeah I‐‐
00:11:19 No, I I I I I never‐‐ last time I ate porridge was probably
when I was about 12 years of age. And I just don’t like it.
But it’d be great if we had, like, Weetbix, cereal, you
know? You know even, for breakfast, you know,
something like eggs on toast, you know, or bacon, you
know, would be great, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And
something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:11:45 And what about lunch? What? What does that look like?
00:11:48 Lunch‐‐ we get a lot‐‐ we eat a lot of chicken here. Yeah.
So sometimes I think we’re gonna turn to chickens, you
know you. Start clucking. Clucking around. We might go
and wake up one morning—go—Go‐‐ having feathers,
you know. But it’d be great if we had, you know, we
haven’t had any pork chops here. We haven’t had
anything like that or steak. We have chicken. We have
meatballs. We, you know, pasta. Sometimes we have,
what do you call, just we had to do, have we do have
done different meals, but I wouldn’t mind like, proper
meat maybe. Maybe pork chops or something like that,
you know. Yeah, something that is heart‐‐ hearty, you
know? Yeah.
00:12:37 (QAI) So you get chicken. What kind of like, how does it? How
does it? What does it look like? How is it served?
00:12:40 Well, sometimes we get the small lots of chicken, you
know the and and then sometimes we get some, the big
piece of chicken, you know, and then sometimes it’s, you
know, it all depends on what each day you know.
00:12:56 (QAI) But do they like fry it or does it come with veggies or?
00:12:59 Ah yeah, comes with veggies all the staff. Yeah, yeah, rice
sort of staff. Ohh like.
00:13:03 (QAI) Yeah. Do you feel like it's enough food, like are you full
afterwards?
00:13:07 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. I just want some pork chops, you
know, something like that because when I‐‐ before here,
I was having steak, pork chops, ribs, the whole lot, you
know, I was having really good meat, you know.
00:13:22 (QAI) Is that when you are cooking for yourself at home?
00:13:25 Yeah.
00:13:26 (QAI) And you can't‐‐ you're not not able to cook for yourself
here?
00:13:28 I’m not, no.
00:13:29 (QAI) What kind of food do you buy?
00:13:31 I, well, I’ll buy those microwave meals, yeah.
00:13:36 Yeah, yeah, I get Lite’N’Easy myself. So do you have
access to— is it pretty easy to get access to a microwave.
00:13:42 Yeah. I’ve got got a microwave downstairs, actually, my,
my, my, my microwave anyway. But I I told Phil that they
can be for everyone, you know? Yeah. So yeah, like for
me I go to ALDI and I buy the quick and easy meals. Like
you get macaroni cheese, you know like, lasagna.
00:14:09 (QAI) How much do they cost? every 20.
00:14:12 About $3.20, yeah, $3.20 a meal.
00:14:14 That isn’t too bad.
00:14:15 (QAI) Yeah. Do you feel like it's healthy enough for you?
00:14:17 Well, yeah, it is. Sometimes I get takeaway. KFC or
something like that or I’ll go to the fish and chip shop.
Yeah, and get myself a, you know, fish. And I love my fish
and chips. you know.
00:14:28 (QAI) Yeah, pretty good aye.
00:14:29 I could go for some.
00:14:32 (QAI) Do you get chicken salt? Do you get chicken salt?
00:14:35 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do, yeah. Yeah chicken salt.
00:14:38 (QAI) How about you , are you a chicken salt person?
00:14:40 Yeah, yeah I’m a chicken salt person.
00:14:43 (QAI) Cool and so… Do you still you still have to pay for the
food though, even though you don’t eat it all the time?
00:14:48 Yeah, I‐‐ it’s just because I get to the point where.
I just can’t. You know, sometimes they have fish, you
know, and I don’t like plain fish. You know, I got and I
can’t sometimes. If they have pineapple, I can’t eat
pineapple. If it’s if we have, like, like I can’t eat any Curry,
because I’ve got a bowl disease and I can’t curry.
Sometimes they have Curry or whatever it is and I can’t
eat it. That’s why.
00:15:20 (QAI) So, you but you still have to pay for the for the food you
you don’t‐‐ they don’t‐‐
00:15:24 Well, I don’t—I‐‐ it it comes out of my I I know. Sure. I’ll
pay $800 a fortnight. OK. I I know that covers food all the
stuff. But yeah, when that that happens, I just don’t eat
it, you know.
00:15:36 (QAI) Because it's not suitable? You can't eat it?
00:15:38 Yeah, kind of it, yeah.
00:15:40 Do they offer things like vegetarian options for people
that need it like.
00:15:45 I’m not sure. I haven’t seen a vegetarian meal here. I
have seen veggies, all the stuff on the side with meat all
the stuff, but not not vegetarian.
00:15:57 (QAI) Does everyone‐‐ when when they serve meals, everyone
eats the same thing?
00:16:00 Everyone eats the same thing, yeah.
00:16:03 (QAI) OK. And so you pay 800 a fortnight?
00:16:05 Yeah
00:16:06 (QAI) Is that it? Is it‐‐ do you pay for the electricity as well? Like
that’s 800 bucks flat?
00:16:12 Yeah, 800. Yeah, right.
00:16:14 (QAI) How do you feel? Like you have much money leftover for
going out and getting your meals and stuff?
00:16:18 Now, yeah, I have about 300 about. Yeah, 340. Yeah a
fortnight. Yeah.
00:16:25 (QAI) Is that—do you reckon that's enough money. Or is it a bit
hard to…?
00:16:29 Well, you know, sometimes it’s a struggle, sometimes it’s
not. But I I don’t really worry—money, like my dad
always said, money is nothing. You know as long as you
got a roof over your head, you got food, you know, and
you got good, good friends. All the stuff. That’s all you
need in life.
00:16:49 Did did did and the staff know about your your
bowel disease and stuff?
00:16:56 doesn't know. doesn't know. I don't think some
of the workers know about about it, but I have spoken to
the cook there, , about I can’t eat this and I can’t eat,
you know, and she knows about that.
00:17:09 (QAI) What did she say when you told he?
00:17:12 She understands she, she said OK. I won’t cook. You
know, cook, you that you know. Yeah.
00:17:22 (QAI) Yeah sorry, I’ll let you have your smoke I'm asking you
too many questions.
00:17:26 That’s alright, it’s alright.
00:17:28 (QAI) Yeah. Yeah. OK.
00:17:33 (QAI) Anything else like so? It sounds like‐‐ like do you like
living here for the time being?
00:17:37 Yeah, yeah. For the time being all the stuff, you know, it
is.
00:17:40 How‐‐ how easy is it to get around?
00:17:44 Well, it’s quite easy. I usually wanna go Lutwyche, catch a
bus, bus just on the corner there. Yeah, yeah. And the
train station, all the stuff. You know, you can get there. I
just don’t go to the city, because when I was living in
Nanango, I heard everything or what was going on in the
city. All these teenagers, you know? Yeah, trouble. You
know, the world’s gone to the point. It’s gone really bad
right now, you know? You know, it’s chaos.
00:18:13 I can respect that. When you need to get your
appointments and stuff, how do you‐‐ how do you
arrange that? Do you just do it yourself or is there a way
you can get there if you need to.
00:18:24 I don’t really have any appointments. I I want to see the
doctor, the doctor comes here anyway, so I just see the
doctor. Ohh. You know, I just had my, my booster shot
for COVID on Wednesday, so yeah.
00:18:39 (QAI) And is that all bulk billed, you don't have to pay for that?
00:18:42 I don’t have to pay for my COVID shot. I do have to pay
for my medication. You know, yeah.
00:18:48 (QAI) Do they help you with manage your medication like they
remind you when to take it?
00:18:51 Yeah. Yeah. They always remind me, you know, yeah,
they are really good. You know, they always let me know.
And sometimes I sleep in, you know, sometimes I don’t
wake up till about 1:00 yeah. You know, sometimes I
have a late night, you know.
00:19:04 (QAI) They'll wake you up? Time to take your medicine?
00:19:06 Or sometimes ohh words, I don’t wake me up. I think
they let me sleep in. But when I wake up and sometimes
in the afternoon they say, well, your breakfast
medication, we’ll just give it to you at nighttime. You
know, sometimes they’ll give it to me. Tt depends. Yeah.
00:19:24 (QAI) Oh yeah, and so you’re wanting to get to the beach. Like
you have a plan, do you need help with that, or do you
do, you not know, like what to do like?
00:19:33 Like for me? I I at this stage on when I was living in a a
Nanango, Kingaroy, I I was with, I think it was Epic
Employment. Yeah. And they used to pick me up. We
used to go on trips once every month. You know, we
used to go do all things, all kinds of things. Sometimes we
do art and, you know, gardening the whole lot. Yeah. And
there’s one thing I wanna do, I wanna get into a a mental
health group where I can do activities and stuff, you
know, I mean, it’s nice being here, but I don’t wanna be
here all the time. I wanna be—get ouut and meet new
people you know, do do activities that I wanna do, you
know.
00:20:22 (QAI) So do you have the‐‐ you mentioned the NDIS earlier?
00:20:25 I’m‐‐ I’m waiting. I, but I I I I, I, I I had the application in
well it started the the first application was I think it was
about August August last year and then I got‐‐ they
wanted more information and they kept stuffing around
the whole lot. Didn’t‐‐ they thought‐‐ the one lady said to
me I needed my income support and my income. And
then. You know only was last week. They‐‐ all they
needed was my my number, my Centrelink number. So
they can get all the information. So Phil’s been helping
with that. Yeah. And he’s been great. You know, he, he,
he he thinks that NDIS, you know, been changing their
story every time we call them up. But now we got
everything going done, and hopefully in the next 2 1/2
weeks I’ll be‐‐ they’ll come and see me, you know? Yeah.
00:21:21 (QAI) OK, so looks that's looking all right. Yeah.
00:21:24 Yeah I wish you the best of luck with that. The NDIS can
be a wild ride.
00:21:28 Oh no, it it sometimes it is. It’s a long process, you know.
And I know when when you get into like I know in
Brisbane here if you want to join up with the mental
health group, you have to be on NDIS everywhere you
go.
00:21:43 (QAI) OK. Yeah, there is a service called Headspace that you
could look into, you know then.
00:21:47 Ah, Headspace, yeah, I heard about that.
00:21:49 (QAI) I don't know if you're‐‐ I'm pretty sure you won't need to
be on the NDIS for that, but yeah, so maybe we can‐‐
I can give you a call sometime or did you give me an
email address? Do you have an email…?
00:21:59 No, I didn’t give… Yeah. Yeah, I do.
00:21:58 (QAI) I'll get it for you after we finish recording. Yeah, I can
probably send you some stuff. About what‐‐ some people
you can talk to that might better help you find stuff
around here.
00:22:09 Yeah, that’s a good question, well, while we’re all, we’re
thinking about it. Internet: is it included in the $800?
00:22:16 Internet? No, only the office does. I have to have my own
Internet.
00:22:17 (QAI) Like your mobile? Is that alright, you’ve got your own?
00:22:27 Mobile. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it cost me a lot of money, you
know? Yeah. Go recharge. And as you run, I’ll run out of
data. Yeah. Gotta get more, you know.
00:22:49 (QAI) Yeah, right. Oh, that's not great, is it? Is there Wi‐Fi here?
00:22:52 There, there, there is. But that’s only for the office, you
know. Yeah, yeah.
00:22:56 (QAI) OK, there's also some people who can help if you're
having problems getting into the NDIS called ART and I
can, I can send you that information, but make sure you
sort of get on it. Sounds like it’d be helpful, hey.
00:23:15 (QAI) Do you have anything else you'd like to include? Like, is
anything you think that the Parliament should hear about
how to make things better? If there’s a way to make, you
know, house or places like better,
what would that be you reckon?
00:23:30 Well, I think I think better security here, you know, like,
like sometimes people can get into the, like, what I got
told was they there used to be a pool table here activities
room, all stuff, you know? And doesn’t have it here. And I
wouldn’t mind having someone like that. You know, you
had something to do, you know? I mean, we do have
each day we play Uno, you know. Yeah. You know, I love,
Uno, yeah. Ohh yeah. Yeah. I am really good at it. Yeah.
Yeah. Played for years and years.
00:24:11 Yeah, but it would be great if we had, like a pool table or
air hockey or something like that. You know, it’s like
something that, you know, we keep us busy you know?
00:24:20 (QAI) Yeah. Yeah. So it's‐‐ is boredom a bit of a problem? Like
you get a bit, people get bored?
00:24:25 It it it it does, you know. Well, when I get to the point
where I’m bored, I’ll go have a sleep, huh? Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:31 (QAI) Does that happen a lot?
00:24:33 Quite a few times. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:24:35 (QAI) Yeah. Do many people go out in the day like do lots of
people have NDIS and they get to go out and do stuff?
00:24:42 A lot, a lot. A lot of these people do have NDIS, and they
have their own worker, all the stuff. Yeah. You know, for
me it’s the opposite. You know, I I I don’t have any NDIS
yet. And I I wish I had a support worker to help me get
our, you know, have a coffee. You know, do something,
you know, go to library or something like that. Yeah,
yeah, because I I when I was in Kingaroy used to go to
the library a lot. You know, and we had, like, you go to
library and you had all board games the whole lot..
00:25:16 (QAI) Stuff to do, yes.
00:25:16 Like stuff to do. Do some reading the whole lot. Yeah,
yeah.
00:25:22 Does this place have like books and stuff you can read.
00:25:25 I I I I don’t know. I I have not seen any books or. That’s
what I haven’t seen, no.
00:25:35 (QAI) Yeah, you haven’t seen any stuff, right. Is there a library
near here?
00:25:38 I don’t know really.
00:25:39 I imagine there would be, yeah.
00:25:41 (QAI) Yeah, cool. OK. Is that everything you wanted to include?
00:25:43 ie Yep.
00:25:44 (QAI) Sol'll stop recording now. Yeah, cool. So what | can do--
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