06: The Centrepoint Kids

June 5, 2022·58 min·5 clips

At age 12, Renee was called to Burt Potter's room and given a three-week deadline to lose her virginity.

The episode opens with background on AMAC, Auckland Medical Aid Centre, New Zealand's first dedicated abortion clinic, which was founded by feminist idealists in the 1970s. By the mid-1980s, staff at AMAC began noticing troubling changes: male counsellors with no knowledge of abortion, massage workshops leaving sexual lubricant on the floor, and a new male doctor absorbing the earnings of three female consultants. Journalists discovered that Centrepoint, a commune led by Burt Potter, had quietly taken over the clinic by placing members on the board and in counselling positions, with their salaries funnelling back to the commune. The episode then steps back to describe Centrepoint in the mid-1980s as a community on a high: it had weathered legal battles, a previous police investigation into child abuse had resulted in no charges, and it had become background noise in New Zealand culture. Peter Calder, a journalist who lived at Centrepoint for most of 1985 as a resident visitor, is introduced as someone who wants to ensure the full story of the community is told, including its genuine therapeutic value. He describes Centrepoint as an excellent environment for raising a young child, with communal nappy duty, shared childcare, and a sense of tribal support. Calder reflects with some regret on the sexual freedom, concluding that sex is better with someone you love. Renee Meiklejohn, Angie's younger sister, arrived at Centrepoint aged nine when her mother — who had struggled with mental health — moved the family in seeking supported communal living. Renee describes her early experience positively: abundant food, bustling community life, movie nights, and enormous freedom for children to roam unsupervised. The episode explains Centrepoint's principle that children thrive when left to their own devices, which in practice meant children ran in unsupervised 'wolf packs' while adults were absorbed in their own therapy and sexual relationships. Renee describes the 'feedback' culture — a practice where community members could verbally attack anyone, who was required to stand and accept it — as traumatising for children. Her sister Angie describes how repeated feedback eroded her self-expression, causing her to gradually diminish herself. The 'hierarchy' exercise, imported by founding member Barbara from an Austrian commune called Friedrichshof (later revealed to have been led by a man convicted of child sex offences), involved lining up teenagers on steps while adults physically moved them up or down based on verbal assessments. Being sexually promiscuous or compliant with elders moved a child higher. University research on former Centrepoint children identified hierarchy as among the most shaming experiences they remembered. Renee also recounts two incidents involving older teenagers conducting hypnosis experiments on younger children, including one in which she was assaulted while pretending to be under hypnosis. The episode describes Burt Potter summoning Renee at age 12 to discuss her 'deflowering,' setting a timeframe of approximately three weeks for her to have sex for the first time. Renee describes following through but feeling sick the first time, stopping, and later reflecting that she would have waited years longer without the pressure. The narrator closes with the observation that Centrepoint children were daily switching between the hypersexual, psychobabble world of the commune and ordinary North Shore high school life.

As heard by us

Warm communal detail leads into a quiet, uneasy question about what independence can leave behind.

The episode stays close to Centrepoint life: bulk lasagne, birthday tables, movie nights, and music drifting over the grounds. Those ordinary details give the place warmth, and that is part of what makes the central question stick.

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Why you'd press play

When Centrepoint's freedom comes first, you hear what the children were left to carry.

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