WELLINGTON — New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, apologized “officially and unreservedly” in Parliament on Tuesday for the widespread exploitation, abuse and neglect of hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in care.
“It was very bad. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it shouldn’t have happened,” said Luxon, while speaking to lawmakers and a public gallery filled with survivors of this abuse.
An estimated 200,000 people in state, foster care and religious institutions suffered “unimaginable” abuse over a seven-decade period, says a damning report released in July at the end of New Zealand’s biggest-ever inquiry. They were distinctly Māori, the Aboriginal people of New Zealand.
“For many of you it has changed the way you live, and for that, the government must take responsibility,” said Luxon. He said he apologized to the previous governments.
In foster care and the church—as well as in public institutions, including hospitals and residential schools—vulnerable people “had to be safe and treated with respect, dignity and compassion,” he added. “But instead, he was horribly abused and neglected and in some cases abused.”
The findings of the six-year investigation, which is believed to be the most extensive of its kind in the world, are “a national embarrassment,” the inquiry’s report said. The New Zealand inquiry followed two decades of such inquiries around the world as countries struggled to deal with abuses by authorities on children removed from their families and placed in care.
Of the 650,000 children and adults at risk in the New Zealand state, raised in the church between 1950 and 2019—in a country today with 5 million people—almost a third endured physical, sexual, verbal or psychological abuse. Many more are exploited or neglected.
“We will never know the true number,” Chris Hipkins, the leader of the opposition, told Parliament. “Many people entering government and religious institutions were undocumented. Records were incomplete, lost, and in some cases, yes, deliberately destroyed.”
In response to the findings, the New Zealand government admitted for the first time that the historic treatment of some children at a notorious government-run hospital amounted to torture—a claim authorities have dismissed.
“I’m very sorry that New Zealand didn’t do better for you. I’m sorry you didn’t believe me when you came to report your abuse,” said Luxon. “I am sorry that many abusers were not made to face justice which means that other people were abused which could have been avoided.”
His government is working on 28 of the inquiry’s 138 recommendations, Luxon said, although he did not yet have concrete details on the financial adjustment, which the inquiry has called for since 2021 and said could reach tens of millions of dollars.
Luxon was criticized by some survivors and lawyers earlier Tuesday for not disclosing compensation plans and an apology. He told the Parliament that a single program will be established to repair the damage in 2025.
He did not, however, raise the amount of money that the government is expected to pay.
“There’s going to be a big bill, but it’s nothing compared to the debt we owe survivors and it shouldn’t be a reason for delay,” said Hipkins, the leader of the opposition.
Survivors began arriving at Parliament hours before the apology, having won seats in the public gallery—which seats only about 200 people—by vote. Others were reluctant to accept the government’s words, because they said the extent of the threat was not fully understood by legislators and civil servants.
Jeering was speaking so loudly when he apologized to the attorney general that his speech was inaudible. Some shouted or left the room in tears when senior government officials from relevant health and social services spoke before Luxon’s speech.
Survivors who were invited to speak had to do so before Luxon apologized—rather than responding to that, said Tu Chapman, one of those asked to speak.
“Right now I feel alone and hopeless at the way this government has done its job of recognizing all the survivors,” he told the crowd in Parliament.
Abuse “torn families and communities apart, put many in jail, imprisoned, left many uneducated,” said Keith Wiffin—a survivor of abuse at an abusive boys’ home. “It has destroyed our international reputation as champions of human rights, which this nation loves to cherish.”
The inquiry’s recommendations include an apology from state and church leaders, including Pope Francis. It also mandated the creation of offices to prosecute abusers and stop repairs, renaming streets and memorials dedicated to abusers, reforming the community and criminal law, rewriting the child welfare system and searching for unmarked graves in mental institutions.
Its authors were appalled at how widespread the abuse—and the identity of many abusers—had been known for years, and nothing could be done to stop it.
“This means you have to relive your trauma over and over again,” said Luxon. “Agencies should have done better and should commit to doing so in the future.”
He did not agree that civil servants or ministers in his government who denied the widespread exploitation of the state when they served in previous administrations should lose their jobs. Luxon also dismissed suggestions from survivors that his policies targeting Māori—such as cracking down on gangs and establishing military-like training camps for young gangs—undermine his government’s remorse for abuses.
Read more: Meet New Zealand’s Gen Z Māori Guardian in Parliament
Māori are over-represented in prisons and gangs. By 2023, 68% of children in government care were Māori, although they make up less than 20% of New Zealand’s population.
“It’s not enough to apologize,” said Fa’afete Taito, a survivor of violent abuse in a government-run home, and a former gang member. “It’s what you do to heal the wounds of your actions and make sure nothing important happens again.”
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