Home Fam-Court Who Is Actually in Charge of South Australia’s Children

Who Is Actually in Charge of South Australia’s Children

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Minister for Child Protection Rachel Sanderson unveiling the floats for the Christmas Pageant (her Facebook)

[Editor’s note: I introduce a single mum’s commentary on the ever-expanding child business and who has the power in South Australia.]

by Renae Casey-McMichael

I have just started a new political party called “KIDS First Alliance“. I never imagined I’d be in this position, but I have seen first-hand how the child protection system often acts in the “worst interests” of the child. The system is broken. Or maybe “broken” is not the right word, as the Department for Child Protection (DCP) believes it is doing an excellent job. That is if you think it’s good to remove children from families and increase the numbers of children under guardianship.

Keep ‘Em Coming

On 30 June 2014 there were 2,631 children in care in South Australia. Five years later (June 2019) it’s risen to 4,003, and the Chief Executive of the DCP is calling it, along with their other services, a “significant improvement.” The numbers are increasing dramatically.  (childprotection.sa.gov.au)

But check out the graph below. I did a comparison with the rate of population growth in SA and those being sucked into the “childcare industry”. In 2017 the rate of increase of children in care was four times that of the rate of population growth. Why the rapid rise — is this to get more money injected into the sector?

Why is this happening, and who is in charge?

Everyone Directs You to The Minister

For about a year I wrote to various authorities in both State and Federal on a child protection issue that I wanted dealt with. I wrote to the Minister for Child Protection SA, the Police Minister, the Premier, the State Attorney-General Vickie Chapman, the Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter, the Prime Minister’s office, the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, and many others.

Seriously, it’s a long, long list. When I explained my situation, their reply was unanimous “please direct your complaint to the Minister for Child Protection, Ms Rachel Sanderson.” They said that it was her problem and her problem only, but I had been trying to make contact with her directly for about a year without any joy.

It seems impossible to get the attention of the Child Protection Minister with regard to a child protection issue.

Who Is Actually in Charge?

There were key reforms to the “Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017” which commenced on 22 October 2018. One of the major changes was:

  • Custody and guardianship is granted to the Chief Executive rather than the Minister.

So what is the minister’s power as of today, November 2019?

Our perception is that the minister of child protection is in charge of the portfolio and the children in state care. But when it comes to child protection issues, custody and guardianship, it seems Ms Sanderson is no longer involved or required. Has she any power with regard to children in the care of the state?

I had also wondered why Ms Sanderson’s public schedule hardly ever involved children, or she attended functions that had little to do with children. I remember one particular day earlier this year (pictured on Facebook) where she was handing out icy-poles to the elderly, but yet had no time to respond to my urgent requests.

And it appears that all the ministers, the prime minister, the attorney-generals haven’t yet caught onto the fact that an unelected official — the Chief Executive — has been given the power over the future generation. Has the Chief Executive more power than the elected government itself (both state and federal)? I believe so, as the PM cannot intervene, and so too for any minister.

Was this done for liability? Could someone please explain.

There are other reforms to the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 that are disturbing:

The Department for Child Protection now has the power to remove children from home … for up to 5 days without a court order, rather than — as previously — for only 1 day. The DCP now has the power to direct parents to attend assessments or random testing. The problem with this is that very few experts, such as psychologists, go against what the department wants for fear of losing future work (and income).

There used to be a provision for a 42-day investigation and assessment order (to assess cases), but this is no longer so. It seems the DCP, a bureaucratic department, has been given unfettered powers. And the Chief Executive can now direct that a child or young person’s name be changed (as can the court) once that child has been in continuous guardianship for 24 months.

The Politics of Protection

Cathy Taylor (source, The Advertiser)

SA’s Chief Executive (of the DCP) is Cathy Taylor. She was imported from Queensland by Jay Weatherill’s Labor government into the position of Chief Executive in September 2016. At the time she said, “I don’t underestimate the size of the job…”

Ms Taylor was to help make changes suggested by Commissioner Margaret Nyland’s Royal Commission, this prompted by a Families SA employee, Shannon McCoole, who sexually abused children in state care.

So is her solution to getting more children in state care?

For some time Ms Taylor was also head of the Department of Education — running two departments simultaneously! It was around 2017 and 2018 that some schools had a change of principals. (I will elaborate at another time on how principals might fit into the child protection equation, and how kids can be isolated from their friendship groups at school.)

Today, the Minister for Child Protection in SA is Rachel Sanderson. She entered parliament on 20 March 2010 as a Liberal candidate, retiring from her business, Rachel’s Model Management & Training (which she had established in 1994).

In 2014 she became the Shadow Minister for Families and Child Protection; Social Housing, etc., and in 2018 she was appointed the Minister for Child Protection in the Marshall Liberal Government.

Her first day in the position was a bit of a publicity disaster. She did an event on a golf course and the media “canned” her for it. She became more cautious after that. I wonder if they didn’t set her up, and I wonder if she has been planted into the position of the minister to later take the fall if something goes wrong in the future.

As I said, I don’t believe she is in charge and has very little to do protecting children, for on 22 October 2018 all her powers over guarding (guardianship) children were transferred to Cathy Taylor — the Chief Executive — an unelected and accountable-to-no-one position.

There’s another strange twist to all this. The Shadow Child Protection Minister, Jane Stinson (Labor) has been critical of Liberal’s child protection management (rightly so), but the department is run by Labor-appointed Ms Taylor. (An interesting side note: many ministers in child protection and leaders in charge of children don’t have children of their own — as is the case for both Ms Sanderson and Ms Taylor.)

Does anyone know who is actually in charge?  Does the presently elected government (Federal and State) realise that none of them have any power over the children in the State? And who and why did they make the decision to surrender these powers?

All Publicity is About Removing Children

In a speech (September 11, 2019), Ms Sanderson said, “I am committed to reform. I will continue to meet with stakeholders, service providers, community groups, carers, children and young people and the non-government organisations and listen to suggestions on how to improve our child protection system.” No mention of meeting parents.

In parliament, Ms Sanderson’s also said, “In fact, the last 12 months has seen the largest increase in people taking up long-term guardianship orders from any other 12-month period.” This was cheered. It seems the department under Ms Taylor is focused on removing children, not healing or helping families. (Video)

I know that many children have been removed from families or protective parents without good cause. That goes to the question of why are so many children being taken into care. Is there a desire to “grow” the child protection business so it becomes more profitable?

Earlier this year, in Adelaide’s Youth Court, I overheard a woman screaming at the judge or magistrate in desperation, “You’ve kidnapped my daughter, you’ve kidnapped my daughter.”

One has to wonder what the business model is for the child protection industry. There seems to be a drive to keep pulling kids into the foster care system even though it is known that there is a greater risk of kids being abused in foster care.

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59 COMMENTS

  1. The picture is interesting, girls playing mermaid in private school parent show is great. The public display of Rachel’s models is weird. A hash of SA colloquialisms, you can not educate a rock spider.

  2. I truly believe that the child protection business in South Australia is just that – a business, where children are treated as chattel to be bought and sold as the government sees fit. A sickening state of affairs. This a very impressive article from Renae Casey-McMichael. Thank you Renae for your brilliant research.

    • Dee, Ms Casey’s discovery is hot, hot, hot. Back in 2016, I made a similar discovery but dropped the ball due to other urgent matters.

      My discovery was that NSW Police Commissioner Scipione denied any responsibility for the way his men handled the Lindt Cafe siege. I don’t mean he said “Oh they acted wrongly but it’s not my fault.’ He said “I have no authority in police operations.”

      Hello? What?

      A Victoria cop told me that Scipione was “bought and sold long ago”. But for me that does not explain things. I do not see bribery or intimidation as the ULTIMATE cause of what is going on. If you wish to hear more on that, call me in a fortnight — I am trying to focus on the upcoming Marathon appeal. Here is my 2016 “discovery”:

      https://gumshoenews.com/2016/08/08/lindt-cafe-inquest-part-17-somnium-scipionis/

  5. There is always someone in the mix for whom the “bug” is actually a “feature”. Its usually a question of working out just who that is, and why it is a “feature” to them.

  6. I recall President Kennedy having on his desk a small notice.
    “THE BUCK STOPS HERE”.
    If the Minister ‘BLOGS’ ducks the buck, then the Minister’s salary should be reduced by the salary paid to the the bureacrat who has been given the authority to destroy families.
    Otherwise, the Minister’s role is just as a vacuous social status symbol and deep financial slush trough.

    • I have resisted commenting on this woman’s face and what hides her facial make up.
      The face discloses the soul.
      Make of it, as your witsch.

  7. The “no one home”/pass-the-buck phenomena is just part of the privatisation racket, and as everyone knows, nothing ever stands still.

    It’s critical to get a grip on the fact that government isn’t something that’s voted in but rather any entity that governs. There are different ways of keeping the mafia at bay: appealing to justice and reason isn’t one of them.

  8. Berry, you have said what I was thinking.

    I wondered if the removing of responsibility of the the minister is the first step to privatization. If failures are exposed in the future, the government will put it arms up in the air and decide it best to privatize the child ” ——- ” industry. The legal ground work is already being laid, it seems.

    It already feels like a “off-government” organisation. The politicians have no power when it comes to the protection dept.

    This line from Cathy Taylor in the latest financial report “Child protection is an inherently challenging area in which to work but I believe we are starting to see the return on our investment in carefully considered reform and strategic planning.”
    https://www.childprotection.sa.gov.au/department/about-us/annual-reports/2018-19-annual-report

    • We missed the boat when Oz was incorporated in the 70’s.
      Think we are watching the slow roll of the old concept/narrative that never was except in our heads.
      Think Berry is recommending that we wait at the side of the river keeping our collective resolve dry like the black powder of yesteryear. Shoot if you have too should your individual liberty be threatened. Hard as it is, wait we must.
      Sure Berry will correct if I have misinterpreted.

      • I think you’re dead right about the incorporation. No doubt the significance registered with a few odd souls at the time; I sure wasn’t one of them but it’s never too late to learn

        and you’re also right about the waiting

    • Cathy Taylor’s remark sure does reek of human trafficking

      I don’t think there’s any full proof way of protecting anyone from such ventures but I do think that playing the respective rival gangs off against each another could help . As the individual members are invariably paranoid, personally insecure, and downright unintelligent, discord could also be easily sown within the same mob. I’m forever praying that the entire beast will just implode like so

  9. If you follow the MKUltra derivatives. MKPrincess seems to morph out of the Monarch program.
    Assuming the reader is 45ish and up, the grooming of youth can be seen though Disney and all weekend TV music video. At one time it was considered lude should a 6 year old bump and grind like an adult being”sexy”.

      • “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun”
        ECCLESIASTES 1: 9

      • What tends to get overlooked is that said phantasm is overwhelming driven by the mothers
        Who argue it’s all about raising the child’s self-esteem
        Just one more symptom of a “me” oriented culture (I think it’s called narcissim)
        Needless to say outlawing wouldn’t do anything but put a lid on said malady

  10. If I hear one more word of helplessness and hopelessness in this column, I’m gonna whoop the lot of you.

    Mainly Dee, though.

  11. Ms Sanderson said, “I am committed to reform. I will continue to meet with stakeholders, service providers, community groups, carers, children and young people and the non-government organisations and listen to suggestions on how to improve our child protection system.”

    (key) stakeholders, service providers, vested interests, communist groups, then finally the c(h)attle.

  12. PRIVATISATION

    British Rail
    In 1996, British Rail was restructured into more than 100 separate businesses and privatised. What had previously been an integrated network bound together in a hierarchical bureaucratic structure with a few modern concessions to divisional decentralization now became an interconnected array of contracts linking companies accountable to their own shareholders and to
    regulatory bodies.

    Visa Dept
    the United Kingdom privatised its visa processing in 2014 and has since been embroiled in numerous scandals, including widespread exploitation, ripping-off applicants, and making the visa system ‘pay-to-win’.

    Former Department of Immigration deputy secretary, Abul Rizvi, has again warned that privatising Australia’s visa system opens Australia’s to “immense risks” and is contrary to the public interest.

    PRIVATISATION:

    It’s all about cycles of “Problem – Reaction – Solution”

    First you have/HAD or create/D a problem (Shannon McCoole)
    The government reacts (Nyland Commission)
    Solution — Make changes (removes the role of minister, now Chief Exec)

    Next Problem (unable to cope with the volume of children in care, which were increased to burden the system; after 5 years they reveal operation issues)
    Reaction – More changes req to fix system (minister takes fall)
    Solution – privatise sectors of the child protection dept.

    After another cycle, the department is broken up into sectors and fully privatised.
    This will lead to crippling budgets and broken families.

  13. My granddaughter was raped, she has a son from it, she loves him beyond words, she understands she cant parent him and i had both with me as their primary carer till they took him on falsified reports and lies. This dept has punished my granddaughter for being raped since day 1, they punished her totally the day they removed him from our care. I will fight to my last breath to get my little man back with us where he was healthy, happy and at no risk of harm. This boy was earmarked before birth and because his mother will not sign him over they will legally kidnap him. Over my dead body

    • How many more stories do we need to hear to understand that the system is not broken — but that it is deliberately dysfunctional. For a reason. It is working exceptionally well in harming families and kids.

  14. Dee,
    What are your ‘hits’ on your site and on the particular reports.
    Where is the msm?
    In any msm office, does anyone with a brain comment to a colleague; ‘look at this, there is our journalists duty to investigate”.
    No way, they are probably are not aware (BS!) of the Amy Broadback (sp?) ( THE EPSTIEN 3 YEAR COVER UP) Of the criminal protection racket run by ABC (us) and covered up by the rest of the msm criminals.
    We must keep up the pressure, maybe then the journos will realise that they are incredulous, the public realise it, advertisers are to be blackballed and the ‘ journas’ have to be sacked and go beg.
    Karma?
    PS: in note promos on Prince Amdrew reports on Sunday night 60 mins?.
    If it is not a desperate whitewash, i will be surprised. Remember Paul Barry on our ABC media watch dumping on Fiona Barnet?
    Worms turn, even in a can!

  20. A child protection group messaged me this morning to say that the crown owns our children – meaning the British monarchy. All of SA’s children are under the Queen’s care act which puts them under the control of the attorney general. My first reaction was to yell ‘bring on the republic’. My second reaction was to shudder at the thought of the crown logos utilised by establishments around Adelaide.

  21. URGENT.
    Notice to all MSM journalists who visit this site.
    If any of you are knowingly, or ignoring due diligence, you lot should be investigated, charged, tried and if found guilty, sent to gaol for covering for the MURDEER, ABUSE, TORTURE and TRAFFICKING OF CHILD VICTIMS.
    I include all politicians who deliberately ignore these crimes against children, be it by ignoring correspondence sent to you on this subject. Being blind is not a defence in law or for carrying out your duty.

    Do not hide behind the recent Royal Commission into ‘institutiona’l abuse of children.
    I suspect that it was a merely a restricted feint to put the public to sleep and at ease and think that the problem is solved. BULLSHIT. A low hanging Cardinal! hey look up above the low hanging fruit.

    https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2019/11/liz-crokin-the-finders-cia-child-trafficking-tunnels-led-from-preschool-to-church-3704635.html

    Liz Crokin puts it as it is…… even note her comments on the Amy “bitch’ video. Note how she progressed with ABC (USA) after the spiking of her exposure of the Clintons and the poor prince. What a entre’ to such lovely interviews with hypocrites.

    PLEASE watch it if you care about our kids, our future and who really runs our countries.

    PLEASE: DO YOUR BASIC DUTY.

    I am sick of people like Ray Hadley on 2 GB castigating soft sentences for convicted paedophiles. HaRdly; you are suspected reasonably of BS if you do not start being fair dinkum and report the evil child abuse that exists at levels well above radio 2GB advertisers.

    As for the Australian Broadcasting Commission:
    Try this in context:
    https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/approach-some-claims-with-caution/9973098

    Ok media watch and Paul Barry: how long are we to be bullshitted? Ita: get you act together…… sack the misinformers.

    60 mins has a program on the poor prince at 9.49 pm tonight on channel 9. We await to see if channel nine is awake. Anyone who has any contact with channel 9, send the link above and put it to the test.

      • Ok, Liz Crokin has inspired me further from my slumber.
        What a gutsy woman.! ( and intellectually inspired)
        Now what about our regular commentators, some being lounge lizards awaiting the occasional fly catch, gorge just to exist.
        No, finger dexterity is a trap. Using it is a opiod by many ending in space.
        The test is, what has been passed on to our psycho leaders and misfits denying their democratic duties and obligation of due diligence.
        Take the test, do something, pass on your thoughts with evidence to the lounge narcisstic political and msm lizards.
        We have the power to enlighten, we are 99% (if awakend) they are mere drips in the sea.
        They have the msm, we have wallets, just walk away from their financiers, their advertisers.

  22. On Gumshoe we have written about babies being snatched from mothers in hospital.
    I’ve heard about four accounts this year across Australia.

    Now UK mums-to-be are leaving the country to give birth to their child in another country.
    Excuse me — what the hell is the problem?

    To quote: https://www.sott.net/article/423656-British-State-Has-Stolen-Thousands-of-Children-From-Families-it-Deems-Potential-Risk-Hundreds-of-Pregnant-Women-Fleeing-UK-Shores

    “A British businessman who lives in France is one of several people who regularly help women to flee the UK to give birth abroad and keep their babies. They mainly travel to France or Spain. Ireland is another destination.

    Mr Josephs, 87, said: “Every woman should be given the chance to raise her child. While they are still pregnant, they can leave the country. The UK system is totally unfair: it is based on what may potentially happen in the future. In what other circumstances is someone judged for a crime they have not committed? People can’t believe it if I say one reason given for a child to be removed is a potential future risk of emotional abuse. People say I may be helping people who go on to abuse a child but we are talking about predictions.

    “He says adoption is pushed in the UK as it represents a billion-pound industry, and social workers come under pressure to place children into new families.” Once children are taken into care, he adds, phones and laptops are routinely confiscated to isolate them from family.”

  23. Ned I watched Liz Crokin’s video last night and I was similarly impressed. The children and their parents who were denied justice in the McMartin Preschool case must surely now sue for their abuses – not just the abusers, but the ‘law enforcers’ who covered the tunnels up. With regard to the tunnels in Adelaide, I have been sitting on the evidence which two amazing researchers found for me. However, when the Finders document was released I shared a post on my Facebook page of Fiona Barnett’s where she published site documents of the McMartin preschool tunnels. I shared in my comments below that post some of the evidence I have acquired. On Saturday 9th November I went on a fact finding mission to Edwardstown. I even looked into a grate in a very important location to discover a ladder into a large underground space. Very promising. I spoke to two people whom I believe will help me to further uncover the truth beneath Edwardstown’s sleepy homes and streets. What I would like to know is, why did all the departments, including Marion council, SAPOL’s Special Crimes Unit, the defense department, and the Major Crime Unit, tell me that these spaces do not exist? I believe they did so for the very same reason that the existence of the tunnels in the McMartin Preshool case were denied – if the space in which you were abused, and within which you witnessed a murder, can be denied, then the murder and abuse can be denied. It’s so simple. But they weren’t expecting me to be so stubborn. I really hate being called a liar. And I have some wonderful, if not genius friends. And now the major crime department seems to be falling apart. In 2018 my brother Andrew McIntyre gave testimony to the International Tribunal for Natural Justice that 10 years ago he was told by a detective to go to the Netley Police station to make official the allegations he had been making about his witness account of what happened to the Beaumont children in 1966. Upon arrival Doug Barr, then head of the major crime department in Adelaide, ordered that my brother be arrested. It was only due to Andrew’s quick thinking and a speed dial call to his barrister which prevented Andrew’s arrest. Now Doug Barr has died (October 2019.) There has been no fanfare in the Advertiser (Adelaide’s only rag) as there normally would be. And no state funeral. But there has been talk that Barr committed suicide. We will have to wait and see whether this was in fact suicide. But I don’t expect to read about it in the Advertiser. A case of a guilty conscience perhaps? My father wrote to a major crime detective in 2012, a week or so after my interview with the same detective where I made allegations that I witnessed my father murder Louise Bell in a secret hidden space below our former home in Edwardstown. In his letter my father wrote this: “Another aside is Adelaide is going through the same nightmare as Alberta Canada which borders America and supplies cannabis over a porous border. The same thing every father a brutal rapist witches clovens torture and then the government acted paying each complainant $50 000 spending $500 000 000 in compensation and every body went home there was not one conviction recorded. Ninety accused committed suicide.” I have checked the suicide rates in Alberta Canada. In 1998 there were 96 suicides. 23 were between 10 and 29 years of age; 27 were between 30 and 39; 21 were between 40 and 49; 8 were between 50 and 59; 9 were between 60 and 69; and 8 were 70 and older. Are we about to see a spike in suicides in Adelaide?

    • WELL SAID RACHEL. That’s how the courts and judges discredit children now and into the future. Find one kink in the story they can somehow discredit, then everyone else goes scot-free.

  25. I did not see ABC (Australia) and the ‘Q and A’ program but reports suggest it was a beauty. Ladies wanting to kill males etc.
    Now this is funny and in short.
    A few months ago I appeared for a hubby and allegations of violence resulted in the police serving him with a apprehended domestic violence order and he was barred from his home etc.
    We settled the matter and all was kosher.
    Recently hubby and spouse were observed in public in some argument and a witness reported it to the local police.
    Right; later a squad appear at the matrimonial home to investigate and arest someone.
    My hubby immediately on their arrival throws in the towel and gets ready to be arrested and taken away.
    Well, is he surprised?
    They arrest his wife and take her away, she is released some 5 hours later.
    Such is the significance of the merits of a independant public witness caring.
    Upon her release and home he laughs and says; ‘now you know what it is like’
    Funny as and merely makes the point ‘Q and A’ ABC, you are a lot of biased man haters.
    Every coin has TWO faces.
    This is the first I have ever heard of, where the police arrest the female.
    I have appeared in many cases of a alleged assault by the male that is chucked out because the princess was the instigator and proven to be a violent liar……. particularly when one party wants the children.
    I have a feeling that some police actually are learning some common sense in difficult situations.
    Dee, congratulations on the article being spread.

    • I’d say all the cases we are dealing with (i.e. in the survey) are not as you mention Ned, but where authorities DO NOT BELIEVE the kids. We are not talking about partners in dispute. We are talking about kids not being believed and added to the child industry as easy pickings.

      By the way, as a side note, I’d rather face a battering from a baseball bat, or maybe a couple of days in jail — over the emotional abuse perpetrated by authorities, the degradation, humiliation and having one’s child removed and made to be a SOCIAL CASTAWAY for years on end. I think few people have any idea of the sheer scale of this abuse. It’s beyond anything I could have imagined.

      • Dee,
        Of course, the cases you are aware of are the subject herein.
        It would seem clear that there is a ‘failure’ in the system dealing with evil.
        All I have raised with the subject referred to above:
        PLEASE do not allow for we males to be thrown out with the bathwater as represented by reports of the ABC ‘Q and A’ program.
        Reports of the females; such as muma H, her aid and that Maxwell agent child abuse facilitator clearly suggest that some females are evil, and perhaps some males are nice……. AND PROTECTIVE!
        Compare the male casuality rate by those dying for country, with the female casualty rate.

      • I did comment;
        “……particulary when one partner wants the children”.
        That is not the case with the matter I referred to.
        It becomes relevant in other circumstances, in regard to children, as it is possible that one or other of the combatant’s children are not believed and then the issue: Why not?
        I appreciate the examples you are aware of are are horrific, but one must arise and impartially examine the facts and evidence and the matter I referred to exemplifies the task…… but for, a independent passing member of the public!
        You have evidence, that in your cases, are substantial.
        It is when that standard is objectively reached, then there is a prima facie case ….. be it disclosing official corruption.
        Whilst the cases you are dealing with are horrific, I merely tried to exemplify the pitfalls in determining the evidentiary task of finding reality.
        Hey, I am not the enemy, did I not log the Liz Chrokin report above with wholesale endorsement?

        • Agree. Agree. You are my strongest supporter. And thank you for that. But we need to find a way to get “evidence” even heard in some Youth/kids courts.

          • The Youth courts are not courts. See my freely downloadable book: “REUNION: Judging the Family Court.”

            Go to the word “books” at the top of the menu here at Gumshoe.

  27. I have only just found your Book “REUNION” Judging the Family Court” you are truly amazing MWM–I have been travelling through realms dimensions realites–

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