The final report from the long-running Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry addresses financial compensation for survivors.
The final report from the long-running Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry addresses financial compensation for survivors.
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care report says ‘unimaginable’ and widespread abuse in care between 1950 and 2019 amounts to a ‘national disgrace’.
200,000 out of an estimated 655,000 in care were abused and many more neglected, with Māori disproportionately affected and subjected to overt and targeted racism.
While the Government is yet to reveal its plans around financial compensation for survivors of abuse and neglect in care, an independent inquiry has given clear direction, including that payouts are comparable with Australia’s where some survivors have received millions.
Today Prime Minister Christopher Luxon seemingly accepted that financial compensation would cost the state billions and said he was committed to doing “the right thing”.
“It isn’t about the dollars,” he said in a press conference, hours before the final report from the long-running Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry was formally tabled in Parliament and made public for the first time.
“It hasn’t been a factor in our consideration because actually when you read those accounts and you read those reports, it’s important we do the right thing.”
A whānau harm payment of $10,000 for members of whānau who have been cared for by survivors, to help prevent further intergenerational harm, was suggested.
The inquiry further urged that if the Government does not progress the inquiry’s recommended civil litigation reforms, it instead empowers the yet-to-be-established redress scheme to “fairly and meaningfully” compensate survivors and to change the accident compensation (ACC) scheme to provide tailored compensation.
The inquiry had recommended amendments be made to laws relating to civil litigation including the removal of a raft of obstacles for survivors pursuing civil cases for abuse in care in court.
In Australia, the implementation of civil litigation reforms recommended by the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse has caused an uplift in the number of civil claims being brought by survivors and the amount of compensation received.
For example, in 2023 Australian juries awarded abuse survivors compensation of A$5.9 million and A$3.3m. In 2021 and 2022, Australian courts ordered payouts to survivors of A$2,632,319, A$1,498,122, and A$1,908,647. In New Zealand, victims are currently receiving up to $30,000 under a rapid payment scheme.
The inquiry viewed that the Government should compare what most survivors in New Zealand receive through ACC with what survivors overseas in comparable countries such as Australia can access through court cases.
According to the report, survivors have received little to no financial compensation from the ACC scheme, which is meant to provide fair compensation, rehabilitation and other assistance.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Cabinet Minister Erica Stanford held a press conference ahead of the tabling of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“For that, and other reasons, the inquiry considered survivors should be able to seek a public decision from the courts and to have their claim for compensation assessed. Survivors in other countries including Australia have these rights, as well as access to out-of-court redress schemes.
“In contrast, there is little scope in Aotearoa New Zealand to bring a case to court for abuse in care outside of the accident compensation scheme. As a result, very few cases have been brought, there are no recent high compensation awards, and the risk for defendants is generally low. These factors impact on the comparatively low amounts offered in settlements.”
However, the report stated that “despite the gravity of these issues”, it remains unclear whether the Government accepts there is a problem concerning civil litigation settings and the ACC scheme.
The Minister responsible for co-ordinating the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry, Erica Stanford said the Government is prioritising decisions around improving redress.
“Other recommendations will require more time to consider and respond to, particularly those involving legislative and major organisational change. We will provide an update by November.”
Standford said the first step was a formal apology which will take place on November 12.
The rapid payment scheme
Currently, survivors of abuse and neglect in care can receive up to $25,000 from the Government but exactly how much they collect depends on the length of time they spent in care.
The Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) rapid payment scheme states survivors who spent less than five years in care will receive $10,000, while the set sum for five to 15 years is $20,000, and for 15 years or more, it is $25,000.
This is based on MSD’s view that the longer a person spends in state care, the more likely it is that they were harmed repeatedly.
In the report, which details the scheme, the inquiry found that using time spent in care as the main criterion was concerning.
“There is a risk that survivors who have spent a long time in care and experienced lower-level abuse will receive more (even substantially) than survivors who have spent a short time in care yet suffered higher-level abuse (such as multiple rapes).
“A survivor who experienced this type of abuse could choose an individualised assessment, but that would likely take years under MSD’s timeframes.”
The inquiry had recommended the Government create a mechanism to make advance payments to survivors who were at significant risk of being unable to apply to the pending redress scheme because of serious ill health or age.
It further recommended that applicants for an advance payment should only have to provide a statutory declaration that they were abused rather than evidence, that an advance payment should be the same amount for every survivor, and that those who received the payment should retain their right to also claim once the scheme had been established.
But the Government did not endorse the inquiry’s recommendations on advance payments.
Instead, MSD introduced the rapid payment scheme in December 2022, and made it available to any survivor who has made a claim, not just survivors who are ill or elderly.
A survivor who accepts a rapid payment from MSD has to sign an agreement settling their claims against MSD, and it is unclear whether survivors who accept the payment will have access to any new scheme.
While the rapid payment amounts differ based on a survivor’s time spent in care, additional amounts may be added where the survivor has raised concerns relating to bush programmes run by non-governmental organisations in isolated settings, inappropriate detention and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
But the maximum rapid payment available is $30,000.
A survivor who receives a rapid payment may also choose to receive their care records, access counselling, receive “an apology for their experience”, and tell MSD what happened to them.
The inquiry had several concerns about the scheme, including that no determination is made in the rapid payment process about whether MSD accepts the survivor’s claims about that abuse.
“The actual abuse suffered by the survivor is irrelevant or mostly irrelevant to the amount received as a rapid payment. It is difficult for the Inquiry to see how MSD can offer meaningful apologies to survivors for abuse if it has not accepted that the abuse occurred.”
According to the report, MSD is also endeavouring to settle claims from a group of survivors made under the Privacy Act 2020 relating to MSD’s alleged failure to provide their care records on time.
Up to $17,000 could be paid out for the delays, based on a banding approach. The inquiry was “very concerned” that a survivor from this group could receive more from MSD, or not much less, for a delay in providing records than the survivor could receive as a rapid payment in return for settling abuse claims against the ministry.
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry was made public today, more than five years after its terms of reference were announced.
“Such an outcome seems neither logical nor fair.”
The Ministry of Education runs a similar rapid payment scheme for survivors of abuse at Waimokoia Residential School with the maximum sum available being $20,000.
It is a ‘national catastrophe’
However, monetary restitution was only one aspect of the report.
It otherwise detailed the scale of the abuse and neglect that occurred in the care of New Zealand state and faith-based institutions from 1950 to 2019.
Survivors who suffered unimaginable physical, emotional, mental and sexual abuse, severe exploitation and neglect, shared their experiences and their subsequent life-long pain and trauma.
It examined how the abuse and neglect was able to occur, how it persisted for decades, and its lasting individual and collective impacts.
And it provided a clear pathway to help put right the deep harm done to survivors.
The inquiry described it as a “national catastrophe” that at least 200,000 children, young people and adults endured abuse and neglect at the hands of leaders who had a duty to nurture, protect and help people flourish.
It warned that if the injustices were not addressed, it would remain a stain on our national character forever.
“There must be no further delay... Aotearoa New Zealand must not put survivors through further hurt,” the report insisted.
Calls were made for key leaders including the Prime Minister, the Pope, and the heads of all faith‑based institutions across New Zealand to issue public acknowledgments and apologies to survivors for the decades of atrocities.
New Zealand Police were asked to establish a specialist unit dedicated to investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the abuse, and the inquiry also called for a review of the appropriateness of street names and public amenities named after a proven perpetrator.
An investigation into potential unmarked graves and urupā at the sites of former psychiatric and psychopaedic hospitals, social welfare institutions, or other relevant sites was recommended, and courts were advised to prioritise civil proceedings regarding abuse and neglect in care.
The report, released more than five years after its terms of reference were announced and decades after survivors first called for redress, blasted the Government and faith-based institutions for their failure to implement the initial 95 recommendations made in the inquiry’s 2021 interim report on redress.
Those recommendations, if implemented, would establish a new scheme to provide holistic redress for survivors.
The scheme would aim to restore the power, dignity and standing of those affected by abuse in care, without them having to go to court, and take effective steps to prevent abuse.
It would fit within what the inquiry referred to as the “puretumu torowhānui system”, which is the wider system of services, laws, policies and organisations, including the courts, that have a role in providing different types of holistic redress and preventing or responding to abuse, harm and trauma in care.
“Since then, there has been very little clear progress by the Government in implementing the Inquiry’s recommendations.
“Timeframes in He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu [the interim report] have not been met, and the Government has not met the timeframes it set itself.
“The steps the Government has taken to date are inconsistent in important respects with the recommendations of the Inquiry.”
The inquiry found there have been positive initiatives but many survivors continued to have no effective remedy.
“In comparison to Australia, many survivors in Aotearoa New Zealand have a second or third-class system. Unless significant change occurs, this will continue to be the case.”
In today’s report, the first recommendation insisted that the Government implement the new puretumu torowhānui, or holistic redress, system and scheme as an immediate priority.
“Survivors have been told that they matter, they are respected for their courage, and they have been heard. Some apologies have been given, and a national apology is being planned.
“The Inquiry considers much more needs to be done, mostly led by the Government. And Government needs to act promptly so that survivors do not continue to die without receiving effective, holistic redress ...
“An apology is hollow without change ... There must be no further delay.”
Tara Shaskey joined NZME in 2022 as a news director and Open Justice reporter. She has been a reporter since 2014 and previously worked at Stuff covering crime and justice, arts and entertainment, and Māori issues.
