Emotions run high as abuse survivors hear apologies

Emotions have run high as members of state agencies and public sector leaders apologised to New Zealanders who were abused in state and faith-based care.

The apology comes after the release of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in July, which found almost a third of people in state and faith-based institutions between 1950 and 2019 were abused.

Apologies were delivered from multiple state agency leaders, with some facing an emotional response from those watching on.

Solicitor General Una Jagose faced jeering and strong comments, and some in the audience left the room in tears.

“I am here today to say I am sorry,” she said.

“No you’re not,” someone in the room called out, while another person stood and turned their back on her.

Oranga Tamariki chief executive Andrew Bridgman told survivors: “We are sorry for not giving you a safe place to grow up”.

“To every survivor and every person who did not survive, to the children we have failed, to the adults those children have now become, we are sorry,” he said.

One person yelled “shut down the boot camps”.

“We may have thought we were removing you from harm, but often we were putting you in harm’s way. We did not always protect you. For that I am deeply sorry,” said Ministry of Social Development chief executive Debbie Power.

Secretary of Education Andy Jackson told survivors it was “not their fault” and addressed Māori, Pacific, neurodiverse and Deaf children specifically.

“Our failings extended across many communities and cultures,” he said.

Other addresses came from Director-General of Health Diana Sarfati, Acting Police Commissioner Tania Kura and Public Service Commissioner Sir Brian Roche KNZM.

A short waiata, Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, was sung directly after the leaders’ addresses, as speeches from survivors commenced.

Survivors share stories

Some survivors have been invited to share their personal stories to a supportive crowd.

A pre-recorded video was played of the late Sir Robert Martin KNZM, introduced by friend and colleague Gary Williams.

Martin described himself as one of the “lucky ones” as he built a family and a life for himself.

“My dream is that all disabled people have their rights,” he said.

Another survivor, Fa’afete Taito, began his address by acknowledging those who had “fought tirelessly for this day to arrive” and those who had died before today’s apology.

“Today we will finally see what accountability looks like,” he said.

“You, the state, you owe us too. It’s not enough to say sorry. Make it count.”

Another survivor, Keith Wiffin said “ultimately it is the system itself that is the problem”. “It has failed us”, he said, as he focused his discussion on redress timeframes.

He called on the Government to hold organisations to account.

“You gave hope and you raised expectation that redress would soon be delivered. It is time to deliver,” Wiffin said.

Survivor Tu Chapman addressed the Prime Minister and Government directly, calling for the Ministry of Children to be abolished.

“You owe us right now,” Chapman said.

Holding back emotion, Chapman said survivors were only given five minutes to “respond to a Prime Minister’s apology we haven’t even heard”.

PM delivers apology

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has made his official apology to the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care in Parliament, as about 200 abuse survivors watched on from the public gallery.

The start of the Prime Minister’s speech was interrupted by someone in the public gallery.

Speaker Gerry Brownlee apologised to those who had come to listen to the Prime Minister’s words for the disturbance, before Luxon continued.

“Today I am apologising on behalf of the Government to everyone who suffered abuse, harm and neglect while in care,” the Prime Minister said.

“I make this apology to all survivors on behalf of my own and previous governments. You deserved so much better and I am deeply sorry that New Zealand did not do better by you.”

Luxon acknowledged that financial redress was an important aspect and outlined some details around the next steps.

“Today I am announcing the Government will invest an additional $32 million to increase capacity in the current system while we work on the new redress system.

He said the funding would increase resources and help ensure the system is more responsive to your needs.

“But I want to assure you it is our intention to have a new single redress system operating next year.”

He also announced a National Day of Remembrance would be held on November 12 next year to mark the one-year anniversary of this apology.

“This will provide us with an opportunity to stop and reflect on what you endured and ensure we are doing all we can to prevent future abuse,” he said.

Luxon also said work would begin to remove memorials – including street names, public amenities, and public honours – of proven perpetrators.

“We will also work with local authorities to honour and care for unmarked graves located on sites that were places of care in New Zealand.”

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins joined the Government in “unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long”.

“Today is a step forward. For the Crown to acknowledge its failings and wilful ignorance, denial and minimisation and to commit to the critical work ahead to ensure our care systems are safe spaces for all tamariki and adults.

“This country owes a huge debt to survivors. We must ensure the enormous efforts made in this Inquiry lead to genuine change. Labour is committed to working closely with the Government towards redress.”

Law changes

Yesterday, the Government said it was introducing several law changes to protect people in state care.

“The magnitude of the abuse detailed by the Royal Commission of Inquiry was heartbreaking, and as a Government we will do everything in our power to try and prevent abuse from occurring in the future,” Lead Coordination Minister Erica Stanford said.

The Responding to Abuse in Care Legislation Amendment Bill will have its first reading today.

It will make changes to the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, Children’s Act 2014, Crimes Act 1961, and Public Records Act 2005.

Ministers said the bill will:

“We want to ensure that every child in this country is raised in a loving and stable home that sets them up to succeed in life,” Minister for Children Karen Chhour said.

Apology a ‘huge milestone’ — survivor

Speaking to Breakfast earlier this morning, survivor Keith Wiffin said he was feeling “hopeful, a little bit excited and a little bit anxious” ahead of today’s apology.

He was put in state care at the age of 10 and the abuse began in the van on the way to Epuni Boys’ Home in Lower Hutt.

“Today’s apology is a huge milestone, a monumental day for those who have suffered and their families. And it doesn’t come down entirely to monetary restitution… it comes down to other things such as, ultimately, taking accountability for creating the scale of what’s transpired.”

He said there was an independent redress proposal which has been sitting with the Government for “nearly a year now” and he found it difficult to accept that some of those proposals could not have been incorporated.

“As far as I’m concerned, we should be a little bit further down the track than this.”

Wiffin said it was a “big day for the country itself, because the impact is so very, very large on all of us and it’s ongoing”.

Asked about the omnibus regulations announced yesterday, Wiffin said “the system itself has been the problem”.

“So we need to look at fundamentally different ways of doing things if we want to affect different and better outcomes. So that means keeping our young out of care in the first place as much as possible, having more resource available to families and whānau to look after their own.”

Survivor Experiences board co-chairperson Eugene Ryder also told Breakfast he also “felt for the Government today”.

“Most of the ministers were children when we were children, and they now have the responsibility for apologising for a system that existed quite some time ago,” he said.

Ryder said different survivors would have different expectations from today’s apology, with some wanting redress “here and now”.

“One of the challenges for today’s Government is to try to create a system that is independent of those organisations that was responsible for the care of children.”

He said it was important to remember that some people who were abused in care did not survive, and that generational trauma has been passed on.

He said he was feeling “quite emotional” ahead of the apology.

Care experience rangatahi prepare for national apology

Care experience advocate Ihorangi Reweti Peters was among the 11 young survivors to share his experience in the group submission.

He’d be attending the national apology event held in Parliament, and hoped it would bring some closure for survivors across the motu.

“I’m hoping to get some answers as to the next steps for the Government’s work programme and the steps they’ll that they’ll be taking over the next couple of months to be able to implement all of the recommendations,” he told Breakfast.

Peters said he was removed from his parents care aged seven-months-old and put into state care due to behavioural and psychological issues from the age of seven.

“In five of the placements that I have had, I experienced physical and emotional abuse from the caregiver that were charged by the state to make sure I was safe, and cared for, and loved.

“But these experiences, both positive and negative led me to advocate for the lives of our tamariki, rangitahi, and whānau in care and with care experience, but also our survivor whānau as well.”

He said he would be looking to the Prime Minister and the Lead Coordination Minister for some of these answers.

“One of the biggest letdowns for me is that there will be no redress announcement. It should be the main priority for this Government and especially redress should have been announced today.

“I don’t think I will get closure today if redress hasn’t been or will not be announced but I potentially may get closure in other ways. I feel that it is obviously a landmark that we are having this apology today and I will have part closure.”

Govt ‘facing up to a very shameful past’ — PM

Speaking to Breakfast ahead of this afternoon’s apology, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said today was a “sorrowful but significant day for New Zealand”.

“We are facing up to a very shameful past where thousands of New Zealanders were abused in state care, and the abuse was harrowing and horrific.”

Luxon said the Government would “continue to work on financial redress” to support survivors.

“They want support with respect to services they may need; with respect to counselling and other services. But importantly, we know the financial redress component is an important part to it.”

He said there were “imperfections” with the current system and there were improvements the Government could make in the short term.

“We are working at pace with the Ministers to build out a single financial redress system. We will have more to say about that in the first part of 2025.”

He said his Government received the final report in July detailing 138 “quite complex” recommendations, in additions to 95 recommendations from the interim report.

Luxon said the Government had already completed or started 28 of these recommendations and was “working through them as fast as we possibly can”.

“What we are doing as a Government is first and foremost about acknowledging what happened — that was the report in July.

“Today is about apologising formally on behalf of this Government and also previous governments over the past 50 years that the Royal Commission looked into this.

“The third thing is to make sure preventing abuse like this doesn’t happen again. So those are the actions that we’re working on,” he said.

“There’s more work always for us to do, and there will always be more work for us to care for our most vulnerable.”