Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on the widespread political reactions to report covering historic abuse and neglect in care facilities

The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into historic abuse and neglect of New Zealanders in state and faith institutions has been branded it a national disgrace.

It found children, young people and adults were exposed to extreme physical, emotional and sexual abuse, severe exploitation and neglect.

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls says Prime Minister Luxon has made a statement to survivors.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jason Wolf's political editors with us in for barrysoberhe Jason.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Good afternoon, heathern.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's the political reaction to this mass of report from
the Royal Commission.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, I mean it's still rolling out down here as
we're speaking. MPs are addressing the house. We just heard
from act Minister Karen Shaw and now it's Casey Costello,
but it was Chris lux and the Prime Minister who
was the first up. And it's still talking obviously, of
course about the largest and most complex public report ever
compiled in New Zealand, being the Royal Commission into the

(00:28):
Abuse in State Care and Faith based Institutions. And as
it was being introduced to the House, the report was
being physically carried in. It took three people to actually
bring it to the house. That is the size of
this thing, three thousand pages long, reportedly fourteen kilograms. I
haven't actually seen it. We've been using USB sticks to
cover it down here. So by now you've probably heard

(00:50):
the details of the report, but in short, detailed unimaginable
and widespread abuse in care between nineteen fifty and twenty nineteen,
and it amounts to a national disgrace. We also heard
that two hundred thousand of the estimated six hundred and
fifty five thousand and care were abused and many many
more neglected, with Marty disproportionately affected and subject to avert

(01:13):
and overt racism, violence and sexual abuse were common, and
in some cases children and young people were trafficked to
members of the public. So harrowing, harrowing stuff in the report.
There is much much more, and as I said, MPs
are debating it. Chris Luxen was the first to speak.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
To every person who took part. I say thank you
for your exceptional strength, your incredible courage, and you're confronting honesty.
Because of you, we know the truth about the abuse
and the trauma that you endured. I cannot take away
your pain, but I can tell you this. You are
heard and you are believed.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
And it was incredibly, incredibly emotional up there in the house,
a lot of tears from survivors in the public gallery.
Of course, MPs theves and we know that an official
apology is coming in November. But the Prime Minister did
have this to say.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
And I say to the survivors, the burden is no
longer yours to carry along. The state is now standing
here beside you, accountable and ready to take action. We
are here today because it was important to the government
that an acknowledgment and sincere apology be made with gravitas
and dignity. It deserved to be made in this Parliament.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
So as to what happens next, the Prime Minister says
the issue of redress will be discussed over the coming months,
and speaking to media today, he wasn't actually able to
say how much this would cost the Crown, but understandably
he said that doesn't matter today and it wasn't really
a concern to him right now, and he's right. So
one hundred and thirty eight recommendations in the report that

(02:47):
will be looked into in the over the coming months.
And the Prime Minister did have this to say directly
to the survivors who were waiting for the next step.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
And I want to assure you that we understand the
urgency and the importance of that work and we will
provide clarity before the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
I would imagine that would come at the same time
as the public apology in November and very emotional day
in the House. I will say it was a bit
of a shame to hear a few people yell shame
from the public gallery as act Minister Karen Shaw started
her speech, which was in the end deeply, deeply emotional,
but a lot of emotions flying in the house.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Any idea why they were yelling shame, It's.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Hard to speculate at this stage and I wouldn't I
wouldn't feel comfortable speculating as to why. I would just
say that it comes down to the fact that there
was a lot of emotional emotions flying today.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now, where was Louise Upston this morning?

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Well, that's the that's the question that we were all wondering.
I mean, it turned out that she was in a
Cabinet committee meeting, but she was there during one of
the bills that she wanted to pass was actually going
through the House and it ended up being a bit
of a calamitous morning, a bad look for the government.
And it was the reading of the Regulatory System Social

(03:58):
Security Amendment Bill. If you haven't heard of this, don't worry.
I hadn't heard of it until the screw up this
morning either. Here's what happened. Assistant Speaker mare Peugh moved
for the bill to be debated. Then there was this
awkward silence as she looked around the debating chamber for
the minister to start speaking, said Minister Louise Upson was
not there to speak to her bill. So Labour's at

(04:19):
Anna Williams was quick to snap into action.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
There is no minister here. You must ring the bells
the minister for the minister that's responsible for this bell
is not here to give the rating. Inside suggests that
it would be worth the House of time to set
their spell aside and move to the next order on
the antenna.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
So National argued that there was in fact Melissa Lee
who was a minister in the House, but that was
not good enough for.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
More in Pewe as the minister was not here to
take the call. I'm recommending that the bill will be discharged.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
So Chris Luxon was asked about this. He said that
it was a bit untidy looking and basically gave the
excuse that she was in the Cabinet committee meeting that
and the bill was called early. Then we asked Louise
Upston about it and she took the four I'm fully
coppying I got it wrong.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I've apologized to my party and we're moving on from here.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Not the biggest issue in terms of a big, meaty
piece of legislation that's going to have historical implifications but
still looks a bit messy from the government. I think
Arena Williams, who I think is an up and up
and coming labor backbench, did quite well to seize upon
the moment here.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
She loved today you must ring the bell. Hey, thank
you very much, Jason Jason Wall's political editor in For
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