Apologies, compensation and prosecution: The key recommendations of the Abuse in Care report

Wednesday, 24 July 2024

Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital, near Marton, was a place of torture for its young patients.

Financial compensation and a specialist police unit to investigate historic abuse in care are among 138 recommendations from the abuse in care inquiry.

The recommendations, contained in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care’s almost 3000-page final report published on Wednesday, not only include suggestions for redress, but also various measures to prevent similar abuse in the future.

A key part of the recommendations is the establishment of a “holistic” redress system, or puretumu torowhānui, to provide financial compensation for victims and other redress such as changing the names of places linked to abuse and perpetrators, providing survivors access to personal records, and establishing various support services.

A 1973 aerial image of Marylands School and St John of God Orphanage in Christchurch.

While the final report does not suggest how financial compensation should be structured, it recommends the Government look at the compensation made to survivors in other comparable countries like Australia.

It also recommended reforms to remove significant legal barriers for survivors wanting to take civil legal action over their abuse, such as the statute of limitations. The report mentions Australian court cases where survivors were awarded multimillion-dollar payouts, with one survivor receiving compensation of AU$5.9 million.

The inquiry recommended the Government implement civil litigation reforms, as mentioned in its interim report released in December 2021, to remove the significant legal barriers for survivors.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into abuse in state care, the most complex and long-running public inquiry in New Zealand’s history, has detailed a litany of pervasive and systemic abuse.

“If the Government decides not to proceed with the civil litigation reforms the inquiry recommended […] the inquiry considers that there would be a strong case for the Government to provide a bespoke scheme of compensation for survivors of abuse in care,” the report said.

To recognise the intergenerational damage, the inquiry recommended a $10,000 “whānau harm payment” for family members who have been cared for by survivors and thereby potentially impacted by their abuse.

Gwyneth Beard hopes the royal commission will come out swinging with its abuse in care report. “Whānau have the answers, they just have to be resourced.”

Other recommendations included the establishment of a specialist unit within the police to investigate cases of historical and current abuse in care. Where allegations of abuse have not been investigated by police or where credible new information has arisen, criminal investigations should be opened or reopened, the inquiry said.

The inquiry also recommended numerous legislative changes, including amending the Crimes Act to specifically include disability within the definition of a vulnerable adult, and reviewing the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act to ensure survivors are not unfairly excluded from eligibility under the law.

It also recommended public apologies from numerous senior figures, including from the prime minister, the Pope, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the public service commissioner, the solicitor‑general, the commissioner of police, and the chief executives of Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education.

The recommendations included various safeguards to prevent future abuse and neglect. These include the establishment of a system for the accreditation of all state and faith-based entities providing care, and robust pre-employment checks for carers.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed the Government would issue an apology to survivors of abuse in care.

The inquiry recommended all care institutions be compelled to collect adequate data on abuse, be required to retain these records for at least 75 years in a separate central register, and regularly report on the data to the relevant governing body.

In regard to abuse in faith-based institutions, the inquiry recommended that any person in a religious ministry be stood down while a complaint of abuse against them is investigated, and that any person in a religious ministry who is the subject of a substantiated complaint of abuse be permanently removed.

“Members of the church should be notified of the person's permanent removal from ministry. Faith‑based entities should also take all necessary steps to effectively prohibit the person from in any way holding himself or herself out as being a person with religious authority.”

The commission further urged the Government to accelerate work to minimise and eliminate solitary confinement in all care settings as soon as practicable.

“The Government should consider, in consultation with the privacy commissioner, whether existing information sharing provisions are sufficient to enable adequate sharing of information to prevent and respond to abuse and neglect in care, or whether additional tools are needed.”

The report included suggested timeframes for implementing the recommendations, ranging from immediate, for the likes of prioritising civil proceedings to minimise litigation delays, to two years, for reforming ACC to provide compensation for survivors.

The commission recommended the Government and faith-based institutions publish their responses to the report within two months, and whether they accept or reject each of the findings and recommendations within four months.