Live: PM Christopher Luxon makes historic apology for abuse in state care
Tuesday, 12 November 2024
The Government is making an apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care on Tuesday.
The ceremony began at 8.45am with a mihi whakatau in Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington, at both Parliament, and Shed 6.
An event in Parliament’s Banquet Hall followed from 9.45am. Survivors heard apologies from various public sector leaders, including Oranga Tamariki’s acting chief executive Andrew Bridgman, acting chief executive of the Ministry of Education Andy Jackson, and Police Commissioner Tania Kura. The public also heard from four survivors.
The national apology will be given in the House by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at 11.30am. Leader of the Opposition Chris Hipkins will also make a statement.
Following the National Apology, the Responding to Abuse in Care Legislation Amendment Bill will have its first reading.
It will make changes to the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, Children’s Act 2014, Crimes Act 1961, and Public Records Act 2005.
The bill will:
Remove strip searches of children in care and provide new search powers for people visiting youth justice facilities.
Strengthen restrictions for people working with young children.
Enforce better record keeping by Government agencies.
Amend the Crimes Act to include disability in the definition of vulnerable adult.
A Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-Based Institutions set up more than six years ago found an estimated 200,000 people were victims of what was largely described in the 3000-page final report, published in July, as systemic, industrial-scale abuse between 1950 and 2019.
“The state and leaders of faith-based institutions knew, or should have known, about the abuse and neglect that was happening. They failed not only in their duty to keep people in their care safe from harm, but they also failed to hold abusers to account,” the report said.