WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Washington Post
November 12, 2024
By Michael E. Miller
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said sorry to some 200,000 survivors of physical and sexual abuse in institutions, which an inquiry called a “national disgrace.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon formally apologized on Tuesday for decades of “horrific” abuse by state, foster and faith-based care facilities that disproportionately affected Maori and Pasifika children and people with disabilities.
A landmark government investigation released earlier this year estimated that at least 200,000 peopleout of 655,000 had been subject to abuse including rape, torture and medical experimentation in institutions across New Zealand between 1950 and 2019.
As several hundred survivors went to parliament to hear Luxon speak, the prime minister praised them for sharing their painful stories and promised additional support.
“Today I stand before you as the representative of not only this government, but all of the governments that have gone before us to offer a formal and unreserved apology for the abuse you suffered while in state care, churches and other faith-based places,” Luxon said. “It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened.”
Luxon said the government must take responsibility for the abuse. “For many of you it changed the course of your life,” he said.
Luxon announced $19 million of additional funding for victims via already existing compensation systems while a new system is being designed, but details of financial redress were not announced Tuesday.
The conservative coalition government has started or is working on 28 of the 200 recommendations from the inquiry panel, and Luxon said Tuesday that the government would introduce a bill to increase legal protections for vulnerable children, including outlawing strip searches.
The prime minister also promised to strip the names of “proven perpetrators” from public memorials, to find and mark the graves of those who died while in care and to hold a National Remembrance Day on Nov. 12, 2025 for the victims.
While some survivors welcomed the apology, others said it did not go far enough.
“Today was a monumental day not only for the victims but also for the country,” survivor Keith Wiffin told The Washington Post in an interview after attending Luxon’s speech. Wiffin, now 65, suffered sexual abuse, violence and psychological abuse over a seven-year period in the 1970s. “Today there was a little bit of healing.”
But others found the day was more enraging than restorative.
“There was a lot missing,” said Filipo Katavake-McGrath, 43, who survived sexual abuse and conversion practices in faith-based care. “I feel like using expletives, to be honest.”
As part of a coordinated apology, seven public sector leaders also said sorry at parliament buildings Tuesday. Several of them, including Solicitor General Una Jagose, who has faced calls to resign over her handling of the issue, were booed during their speeches.
“No you’re not,” someone in the room called out as Jagose said she was sorry, according to local media. Another person stood and turned their back on her.
Stephen Winter, an associate professor at the University of Auckland who studies reparations, said Luxon’s speech was a positive step but also left some questions unanswered.
“He didn’t shirk away from responsibility and he didn’t speak just in terms of abstraction,” Winter said, adding that Luxon’s speech was detailed enough that some survivors could see their ordeals reflected in the remarks.
Luxon’s speech didn’t try to shut down further discussion on the abuse, he said.
“This was pitched very much as a process of engagement,” Winter said. “He was looking back at what had happened but also at where things are going to go from here.”
But Winter said it wasn’t clear how much of the new funding would actually reach victims.
Katavake-McGrath called the $19 million “pitiful” and feared Luxon’s government was unlikely to deliver any significant additional redress to survivors.
Wiffen, however, said he was “optimistic” that the government would announce substantial new compensation next year, although he thought it would fall short of the $6-7 billion needed.
Some victims groups also said the measures didn’t go far enough.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t see any actions in there,” Karl Tauri, a leader of the New Zealand Collective of Abused in State Care, told the Stuff news website regarding the new legislation. “I’m hearing about adjustments, but I’m not seeing any action.”
Allegations of abuse at some care facilities surfaced as far back as the 1970s, Winter said, but the issue began to gain momentum with the creation of the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service in 2008, which provided a private way for victims to tell their stories and receive counseling. More than 1,100 survivors came forward, and when the program ended in 2015, the judge overseeing it called for an independent inquiry.
In 2018, then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delivered on a campaign promise by announcing a royal commission, or government investigation, into the growing allegations of abuse of children and people with disabilities who had been taken from their families by the government and put into state or faith-based institutions.
The royal commission became the largest and longest in New Zealand history, tallying more than 100 days of public hearings, almost 3,000 testimonies and more than 1 million documents of evidence.
When the final report was published in July, it weighed more than 30 pounds.
It found that the abusers included caregivers, religious leaders, social workers and medical professionals.
“The care system in Aotearoa New Zealand was a fully funded failure that enabled pervasive abuse and neglect,” the report said. “Almost every survivor who came forward to share their experience with the inquiry has endured irreparable damage to the quality of their lives.”