The New Zealand Government has apologised after a public inquiry revealed that around 200 000 children, young people and vulnerable adults had been abused in state and religious care over the past 70 years – many of them subjected to rape, sterilisations and electric shock therapy.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon promised reforms on Wednesday after the revelations that nearly one in three children and vulnerable adults in care from 1950 to 2019 experienced some form of abuse, the report found, a finding that could leave the government facing billions of dollars in fresh compensation claims.
“This is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand's history as a society and as a state, we should have done better, and I am determined that we will do so,” Luxon told a news conference.
Reuters reports that an official apology is expected to follow on 12 November.
The report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry spoke to more than 2 300 survivors of abuse in the country, which has a population of 5.3m. The inquiry detailed a litany of abuses in state and faith-based care, including rape, sterilisation and electric shocks, which peaked in the 1970s.
Members of the indigenous Maori community were especially vulnerable to abuse, the report found, as well as people with mental or physical disabilities.
Civil and faith leaders fought to cover up abuse by moving abusers to other locations and denying culpability, with many victims dying before seeing justice, the report added.
The report made 138 recommendations, including calling for public apologies from the government, as well as the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury, heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches respectively, who have previously condemned child abuse.
Luxon said he believed the total compensation due to survivors could run into billions of dollars.
The report called for the government to set up a Care Safe Agency responsible for overseeing the industry, as well as new legislation including mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, including admissions made during religious confession.
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