Hollow Apology – State abuse compensation for those tortured as children by the State isn’t enough

State abuse compensation ‘band-aids for bullet wounds’, government told

The government has been told its compensation scheme for survivors of state abuse offers “band-aids for bullet wounds”.

In an urgent debate in parliament, Labour called on the coalition government to reconsider its contentious decision not to set up a new independent redress system.

The government acknowledges it may not have come up with a perfect solution, but says its allocated an historically significant amount of money.

Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime requested the debate, which the Speaker allowed because it was a “significant issue”.

Prime kicked off the debate by quoting a survivor who said the government’s redress announcement on Friday was “shameful.”

The government has decided against setting up a new system, which the Royal Commission of Inquiry recommended, instead deciding to put more money into the current system.

The decision was also at odds with the prime minister’s assurances last year that a new system would be set up.

But Prime told Parliament on Tuesday the final report from the Royal Commission was clear that “survivors wanted an independent system”.

“Funnelling more money into systems that have harmed them in the past, is, without question, the wrong call.”

We have let down those the State abused and the decision by the Government to not properly fund their compensation is a sickness…

Abuse in care survivors vow to fight on after government opts against new compensation scheme

Abuse in care survivors have described the government’s changes to the redress system as an insult, a broken promise and a kick in the guts.

…this Government has lied to the faces of the abused…

Survivors had consistently called for the Royal Commission’s recommendations to be actioned, including the establishment of an independent, survivor-led and survivor-informed redress system for all those who suffered abuse in the past, present and into the future, whether it was committed at the hands of the state or faith-based institutions.

Keith Wiffin, who entered state care at 10-years-old and sat on the Redress Design Group which provided a report to the government in late 2023, said the work of the design group and the government’s ultimate announcement bore no similarity.

“They are poles apart,” Wiffin said.

“Today’s announcement is essentially a miniscule amount of topping up a thoroughly rotten process, governed by the very same people who have always opposed us and disrespected us.”

The key aspect of the group’s scheme and the Royal Commission’s recommendation was its independence from the Crown and the government departments responsible for abuse and the failure to protect children and vulnerable people.

“This should’ve been a day when we were celebrating something meaningful . . . like we celebrated after the apology. We should have been celebrating the implementation of that scheme in some form,” Wiffin said.

…remember, this is after the State destroyed and used despicable tactics to demean and destroy those victims of State abuse!

I simply do not believe the vast amount of Kiwis have any idea just how involved the NZ State was in not only abusing victims in their care, hiding that abuse, and then using legal tactics to undermine, attack and retraumatize those victims!

The Solicitor-General was in the middle of that process and her apology is simply not enough and the rest of the NZ Media have an obligation to hold her to account…

Abuse in state care: Sorry Solicitor-General Una Jagose, an empty apology isn’t enough – Shane Te Pou

• • The report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care says of the roughly 655,000 children, young people and adults in care during 1950 to 2019, about 200,000 were abused and even more were neglected.
  • The inquiry found evidence of abuse and failures of responsibility ‘everywhere we looked’, including welfare institutions, churches and other religious organisations, some schools, the police and successive governments.
  • Solicitor-General Una Jagose was heckled by survivors at the Parliament apology gathering. As the head of the Crown’s legal team, she had been involved in defending the state against abuse claims.

…I find it appalling that Investigative Journalist Aaron Smale was banned from Parliament and he didn’t receive solidarity from other Journalists.

It is journalists like Aaron and columnists like Shane who our only hope to hold the State accountable…

The state knew it had abused these children and its lawyers did everything to deny justice in case it cost us too much money. What sort of country makes value judgments based on such venal logic?

How can any of us hold our heads up knowing the state hired private detectives to undermine survivors in court by besmirching their reputations?

Why has the state knowingly abused its power against those they have already harmed? The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care investigated the Crown’s litigation strategy and described the Crown’s legal conduct as going beyond mere neutral defence of claims.

The Royal Commission accused the strategy of “causing long, avoidable delays and failing to keep claimants adequately informed of the progress of their cases”. They cross-examined witnesses to suggest that survivors should have, as children, disclosed abuse at the time it happened or somehow avoided it. They failed to disclose relevant information damaging to the Crown’s case − suggesting survivors were lying and colluding, even when they knew the survivors had been abused.

…you can not abuse 250 000 children in State Care, know that they have been abused and then implement legal tactics that use dirty under handed means to undermine those victims.

The State KNEW they had abused these kids, yet did everything to limit accountability.

We should all be ashamed and angry at how little we truly knew about what the State did to these victims in the first place and then damaged them again with a compensation process that only denigrates the victims again.

What have we become as a people for this abuse of our fellow citizens by the state can simply be glossed over?

 

 

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