‘Horrific and harrowing’ facts to be laid bare in Royal Commission report into abuse in care

Tuesday, 23 July 2024

A five-year inquiry into the abuse in care will finally be published this week, revealing what Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called “horrific and harrowing” facts from New Zealand’s recent history.

While ministers have had three weeks to read the findings, in a document said to weigh 14kg and include 3000 pages, it won’t be publicly released until Wednesday afternoon.

Luxon, on Monday, said he had read about half of the report and would organise for a formal apology to victims of abuse in care.

He said the Government would apologise to the victims on November 12, at an event at Parliament.

Why it matters

Luxon said as many 3000 survivors of abuse had submitted their experiences to the royal commission.

The report is expected to confirm instances of sexual, physical and psychological abuse of children.

During the royal commission process, it issued specific reports about certain instances of abuse in care. In the Lake Alice report, the commission found children were subject to “extreme experimental procedures”, rape, and torture. Lake Alice wasn’t closed until the end of 1999.

Those experiences were not isolated to Lake Alice, and the full royal commission report is expected to detail widespread abuse of children and vulnerable people in schools, hospitals, youth justice facilities, religious institutions, and foster homes.

The breakdown

The commission was asked to provide a historical record of the abuse that has occurred over recent decades, and the lasting impact that had on survivors.

It would also provide recommendations to the Government on how to stop history repeating, and detail what has already been done to limit abuse in care.

Some of the survivors who have given evidence to the Royal Commission are now aged in their 80s and 90s and in some cases have waited decades to tell their stories.

What next?

Luxon, on Monday, denied the concerns of many survivors that the Government’s military-style boot camps for serious young offenders showed it had failed to learn from mistakes of the past.

The boot camp pilot was set to start next Monday.

“'l’ll just say to you, you know as I've tried to say from day one, that the military style academies actually have community organisations from day one,” he said.

That would include psychological help and assessment for children in the programme, he said.

Asked if the Government would be changing its approach to youth justice, of the care of vulnerable people after reading the 3000-page report, Luxon said that was over simplifying the process.

“There’s been lessons, as we’ve said, from the get go. I know some media want to simplify this this through a really simplistic expression of what it’s about,” he said.

Paora Sweeney survived abuse as a child when in borstals, boot camps, foster homes and boarding schools. He submitted as part of the commission’s inquiry into the impact of abuse in care on Māori, given tamariki Māori were - and continue to be - the most likely people to be taken by the state.

He said he and other survivors had been deeply concerned that policies such as boot camps were returning to the ideas and discussion present when they were sent to facilities as children and teenagers.

The Government promised a “tough on crime” approach, including military-style detention for what it deemed to be “serious young offenders”.

“The guys that I was on the commission with, we have been talking all about this over the last few days and months. We think it’s wrong,” he said.

He said his experience in youth detention, which included physical training, prepared him and his generation to be “fitter, more discipled, better criminals”.