New Zealand inquiry reveals 'unimaginable' abuse in care institutions over 5 decades

Nearly a third of the children and vulnerable adults in state, foster and faith-based care in New Zealand between 1950 and 1999 were reportedly abused, a new report claims.

New Zealand’s wide-ranging independent inquiry into the abuse of children and vulnerable adults in care over the span of five decades released a blistering final report Wednesday that found the country’s state agencies and churches failed to prevent, stop or admit to the abuse of those they were supposed to look after — even when they knew about it.

The scale of the abuse was "unimaginable" with an estimated 200,000 people abused in seven decades, the report said. Scrutiny of state and faith-run institutions was lax and predators rarely faced repercussions.

In response to the findings, New Zealand’s government agreed for the first time that historical treatment of some children in a notorious state-run hospital amounted to torture, and pledged an apology to all those abused in state, foster and religious care since 1950. But Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was too soon to divulge how much the government expected to pay in compensation — a bill the inquiry said would run to the billions of dollars — or to promise that officials involved in denying and covering up the abuse would lose their jobs.

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The publication of findings by the Royal Commission — the highest level of inquiry that can be undertaken in New Zealand — capped a six-year investigation that followed two decades of similar probes around the world, echoing other nations’ struggles to reckon with authorities’ transgressions against children removed from their families and placed in state and religious care.

The results were a "national disgrace," the inquiry’s report said. Of 650,000 children and vulnerable adults in state, foster, and church care between 1950 and 2019 — in a country that today has a population of just 5 million — nearly a third endured physical, sexual, verbal or psychological abuse. Many more were exploited or neglected, the report said. The figures were likely higher, though precise numbers would never be known because complaints were disregarded and records were lost or destroyed.

"These gross violations occurred at the same time as Aotearoa New Zealand was promoting itself, internationally and domestically, as a bastion of human rights and as a safe, fair country in which to grow up as a child in a loving family," the inquiry heads wrote, using both the Māori and English names for the country.

"If this injustice is not addressed, it will remain as a stain on our national character forever," read the 3,000-page report.

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Hundreds of survivors and their supporters filled the public gallery Wednesday in New Zealand’s Parliament, where lawmakers responded to the findings.

The report lambasted some senior figures in government and faith institutions, who it said continued to cover up and excuse abuse throughout public hearings into the matter. Many of the worst episodes had long been common knowledge, it said, and officials at the time of the abuse were "either oblivious or indifferent" about protecting children, instead shoring up the reputations of their institutions and of abusers.

The inquiry made 138 recommendations across all areas of New Zealand law, society and government. It adds to dozens of interim recommendations in 2021 that urged swift redress for those abused, some of whom were sick or dying — of which little has been enacted.

The government pledged Wednesday to supply answers by the end of the year about plans for redress, although the inquiry decried the scant progress made by successive governments to date.

The fresh recommendations include seeking apologies from state and church leaders, including Pope Francis, for the abuse of children and vulnerable adults and for disbelieving decades of accounts. The inquiry also endorsed creating dedicated offices to prosecute abusers and enact redress, renaming the streets and monuments that are currently dedicated to abusers, reforming civil and criminal law, rewriting the child welfare system, and searching for unmarked graves at psychiatric facilities.

Among investigations worldwide, New Zealand’s inquiry was notable for its scale — the widest-ranging such probe ever undertaken, according to those leading it. It examined abuse in state institutions, foster care, faith-based care, and medical and educational settings, interviewing nearly 2,500 survivors of abuse.

Children were removed arbitrarily and unfairly from their families, the report said, and the majority of New Zealand’s criminal gang members and prisoners are believed to have spent time in care.

As in Australia and Canada, Indigenous children were targeted for placement in harsher facilities and subject to worse abuse. The majority of children in care were Māori, despite the group comprising less than 20% of New Zealand’s population during the period examined.

The average cost of abuse in a survivor's lifetime is $508,000, the inquiry found. Health care and other government-funded measures account for less than a quarter of that cost, while the remainder quantifies the toll on the survivor of their pain, suffering, lost opportunities and early death.

Those abused have had little recourse under New Zealand law to sue or seek compensation, with some accepting small out-of-court settlements. As recently as 2015, New Zealand governments rejected the need for such an inquiry and government agencies argued that abuse had not been endemic.

Tu Chapman, a survivor and advocate, attended Parliament on Wednesday, where she told The Associated Press that immediate action was needed on redress to prove that the government took the findings seriously.

"Announce the redress system as soon as possible," she said. "Further delay is just impacting survivors even more who have waited 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years."

In comments to reporters Wednesday ahead of the report’s release, Luxon said the government now heard and believed survivors, and that he had been shocked by the findings.

"New Zealanders just don’t think this thing would happen, that abuse on this scale would ever happen in New Zealand," the prime minister said. "We always thought that we were exceptional and different, and the reality is we’re not."

Luxon said that when survivors tried to speak up with "horrific and harrowing" stories of abuse, the people charged with protecting them "turned a blind eye." The findings marked "a dark and sorrowful day" for the country, Luxon added.

While he could not yet say which recommendations he would commit to enacting, he said the government would formally apologize to survivors on Nov. 12.

Following Luxon’s speech, hundreds of survivors stood and sang a Māori song in an emotional scene.

Karen Chhour, a lawmaker for the libertarian ACT party who grew up in state care, told Parliament that New Zealand had "tolerated rape and abuse of vulnerable people and the abuse of power" for too long.

"It’s time we faced this poison that is rotting our nation from the inside," said Chhour, whose party is a member of the governing bloc.

Children and vulnerable adults were "devalued and dehumanized," said Chris Hipkins, leader of Labour — New Zealand's main opposition party, which commissioned the inquiry while in power. The episode was "a nationwide intergenerational shame" that was far from over, he added.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, an opposition lawmaker and co-leader of the Māori Party, said she did not accept the government needed time to digest the report.

"What the hell has changed for us?" Ngarewa-Packer asked Parliament on Wednesday, referring to what the inquiry said was continuing abuse of people in care — and current government crackdowns on gangs and youth offenders, many of whom spent time in care.

The report singled out churches — particularly the Catholic Church — as failing to address or prevent abuse. As many as 42% of those in faith-based care by all denominations were abused, according to a report produced for the inquiry. The Catholic Church said in a 2020 briefing to the commission that accusations had been made against 14% of its New Zealand clergy during the time covered by the inquiry.

In one recommendation, the inquiry’s authors exhorted an investigation into priests from one Catholic order who had been sent to Papua New Guinea to evade accusations of abuse in Australia and New Zealand, adding that little was known about "the nature and extent of abuse and neglect there or the needs of potential survivors."

Senior Catholic figures in New Zealand said in a written statement Wednesday that they had received the report and "will now read and review it carefully."