What you need to know about the royal commission into abuse in care

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

A six-year investigation into abuse in care has confirmed systemic and widespread abuse of nearly quarter of a million vulnerable New Zealanders, in recent decades.

What it was: The Royal Commission into Abuse in Care investigated the abuse of people in state-run and faith-based care facilities. It included schools, hospitals, youth justice facilities, foster homes, maternity wards, and medical facilities.

The findings: From 1950 to 2019, the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care estimates that 200,000 vulnerable people faced abuse and neglect, including torture, rape, sexual abuse, physical attacks, and medical experimentation.

Instead of receiving care and support, our most vulnerable were exposed to the most unimaginable abuse.

The Royal Commission found that the abuse and neglect almost always started from the first day a person was placed in care and often continued the entire time they were in care. That meant years, even decades, lifetimes of abuse and neglect - for others, the report says, it led to an unmarked grave.

How they got away with it: The Royal Commission report proves that abusers were able to act with impunity by targeting vulnerable people who have been ostracised from mainstream New Zealand society. Māori, children from poor families, deaf people, Pasifika children, and intellectually and physically disabled people, have for decades been preyed upon. And their complaints have almost always been ignored.

The next steps: The report makes more than 130 recommendations and says that if this injustice is not addressed, it will remain a stain on our national character forever.

The exact toll of abuse in care may still be unknown. After hearing accounts of people going missing and concerns about lives being lost and forgotten, the commission is calling for an independent investigation into unmarked graves at former social welfare and psychiatric facilities.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed there would be a formal apology from the Crown - that was one of the recommendations. He also confirmed work would start, with urgency, to establish a system to compensate survivors.

But he said the Government needed time to consider the other recommendations.