Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care: findings and what happened next
Abuse and neglect of children, young people and adults in State and faith based care in New Zealand, with the inquiry's estimates covering 1950 to 2019.
- Country
- New Zealand
- Type
- royal commission
- Established
- 1 February 2018
- Chaired by
- Judge Coral Shaw, Dr Andrew Erueti, Paul Gibson
- Report published
- 24 July 2024
- Recommendations
- 138
Implementation, as of 12 November 2024As of November 2024 the government had apologised and said it was working on 28 of the 138 recommendations, with a single redress system promised for 2025.
What the inquiry found
- The final report, Whanaketia, estimated that about 200,000 people were abused out of an estimated 655,000 people in care between 1950 and 2019, and said even more were neglected.2
- The inquiry found that abuse and neglect were widespread in state and faith based care institutions and that "Sexual abuse was commonplace".2
- The inquiry said "The true number will never be fully known" because records were never created or were lost.2
- The inquiry found that Māori were more likely to be taken into care and then faced harsher treatment because of their ethnicity.2
- The Royal Commission heard nearly 3000 survivor accounts of abuse and neglect, according to the Ministry of Justice.1
Key recommendations
- Recommendation 1 called on the government and faith based institutions to implement without delay the 95 recommendations of the 2021 interim redress report.3
- Recommendations 2 to 4 called for public apologies from the Prime Minister, faith based and charitable leaders, educational organisations and government departments.3
- Recommendations 40 to 47 set out a National Care Safety Strategy with a proposed Care Safety Agency and a Care Safety Act.3
What happened next
- The Royal Commission was established.5
- The final report, presented to the Governor-General in June 2024, was made public, and the government said it would decide its response to the recommendations in the coming months.1,5
- Prime Minister Christopher Luxon delivered a formal apology in Parliament, saying "It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong."4
- According to AP reporting, the government said it was working on 28 of the 138 recommendations and that a single redress system would be set up in 2025.4
Read the report: www.abuseincare.org.nz/reports/whanaketia
Sources
- Ministry of Justice, New Zealand, Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry, final report published (25 July 2024)
- RNZ, Abuse in Care inquiry final report made public, commissioners call for reform and redress (24 July 2024)
- The Spinoff, Righting the wrongs of the past: the abuse in care inquiry's key recommendations (24 July 2024)
- Voice of America (AP), New Zealand's leaders formally apologize to survivors of abuse in state and church care (12 November 2024)
- Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, About us