Kerre Woodham: Thank heavens for the bravery of those who spoke at the Abuse in Care inquiry

For those older survivors of abuse in state and church care, I wonder if you ever, ever thought this day would come?  

When you could tell your story without fear of being further beaten and abused and called a liar. When you would be listened to and believed and told that the fault for what has happened to you, the grievous hurt that you have suffered, is not your fault.  

It's the fault of sadistic, depraved adults who should never have been put in the position of looking after vulnerable children. It's the fault of organisations that were so hell bent on protecting their holy reputations, that rather than punishing the abuser, they just sent him away, giving them new opportunities to hurt and destroy the lives of more young children. 

When you look at your own children or grandchildren, 7-year-old boys and girls – look at them - they are beautiful humans. Half baby, half child but you can see the full adult they're starting to become.  

So full of potential, so full of promise and they love life and they love you, and they trust you, and you wonder how on Earth any adult could betray that trust and brutally hurt the bodies and souls of those children?  

Well wonder no more. 2944 pages of evidence will tell you exactly how adults did that.  

It's the largest and most complex inquiry ever held in New Zealand, and thank you to all of those who took part. The Commission members, which must have been a grueling job and the witnesses.  

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care was six years in the making. And every page is a page of families. Families in the first instance, who either neglected their children, couldn't be bothered with their children, abused their children sufficiently, that the state intervened, and then in came the institutions and the churches.  

And they all failed these beautiful, vulnerable young people they were supposed to be protecting. The report was released to the public yesterday afternoon. It contains 138 recommendations and Parliament acknowledged receipt of the report, with speakers from across the House:   

“We like to think that abuse like this doesn't happen here in Aotearoa, New Zealand but it did, and it is a shameful chapter of our history that we must confront. And Mr. Speaker, this is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand's history. And it's important that as a country, we bring to the surface and we understand the hard truths of what happened so we can try and move forward together. And I say to the survivors, the burden is no longer yours to carry alone. The state is now standing here beside you, accountable and ready to take action.” 

That was Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. This is leader of the opposition Chris Hipkins:  

“Mr. Speaker, I want to address the Prime Minister and thank him for his words. Our government set up this inquiry and we made some changes. We changed the redress rules on an interim basis and we did set up the Survivor Experiences Board, but Prime Minister, we didn't do enough. And the ball now falls to you and your Government. This must be bigger than politics. Mr. Speaker, we owe it to the survivors and to future generations to finally deliver justice, and to finally end the ongoing abuse that happens in state care. This work will extend beyond the life of any one government, so we should work together to make sure that happens.”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from news Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be for those older survivors of abuse in state
and church care. I wonder if you ever ever thought
this day would come when you could tell your story
without fear of being further beaten and abused and called
a liar, when you would be listened to and believed

(00:31):
and told that the fault for what has happened to you,
the grievous hurt that you have suffered, is not your fault.
It's the fault of sadistic, depraved adults who should never
have been put in the position of looking after vulnerable children.
It's the fault of organizations that were so hell bent

(00:53):
on protecting their holy reputations that rather than punishing the abuser,
they just sent him away, giving them new opportunities to
hurt and destroy the lives of more young children. When
you look at your own children or grandchildren, seven year
old boys and girls, look at them. They are beautiful humans.

(01:18):
Half half baby, half child, but you can see the
full adult they're starting to become, so full of potential,
so full of promise, and they love life, and they
love you, and they trust you, and you wonder how

(01:40):
on earth any adult could betray that trust and brutally
hurt the bodies and souls of those children. Wonder no more.
Two nine hundred and forty four pages of evidence will
tell you exactly how adults did that. It's the largest

(02:01):
and most complex inquiry ever held in New Zealand. And
thank you to all all of those who took part,
the commission members, which must have been a grueling job,
and the witnesses. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical
Abuse in State and Faith Based Care was six years
in the making and every page is a page of families.

(02:25):
Families in the first instance, who either neglected their children,
couldn't be bothered with their children, abuse their children sufficiently
that the state intervened, and then income, the institutions and
the churches, and they all failed these beautiful, vulnerable young

(02:47):
people they were supposed to be protecting. The report was
released to the public yesterday afternoon. It contains one hundred
and thirty eight recommendations and Parliament acknowledged receipt of the
report with speakers from across the house.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
We like to think that abuse like this doesn't happen
here in Alta Zealand. But it did, and it is
a shameful chapter of our history that we must confront.
And mister Speaker, this is a dark and sorrowful day
in New Zealand's history, and it is important that as
a country we bring to the surface and we understand
the hard truths of what happened so we can try

(03:24):
and move forward together. 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.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
That was Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. This is Leader of
the Opposition, Chris Hipkins.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Mister speaker, I want to address the Prime Minister and
thank him for his words. Our government set up this
inquiry and we'd made some changes. We changed the redress
rules on an interim basis, and we did set up
the Survivor Experiences Board. But Prime Minister, we didn't do
enough and the ball now falls to you and your government.

(04:04):
This must be bigger than politics, mister Speaker. We owe
it to the survivors and to future generations to finally
deliver justice and to finally end the ongoing abuse that
happens in state care. This work will extend beyond the
life of any one government, so we should work together

(04:27):
to make sure.

Speaker 2 (04:28):
That happens, which is quite true. And finally, Minister in
Charge of the Crown response to the Abuse and Care Inquiry,
Erica Stanford.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
These are our most vulnerable and damaged tommodyhy And this
report tells us today that we must do better. And
as a government we are committed delivering our response to
the report with the respect and dignity it deserves. But
today is about the survivors. Today we hear your stories.
Today we acknowledge your bravery, and your bravery will not

(05:01):
only correct the historic record, but it will determine our future.
You are brave, We acknowledge you, and we.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Thank you, Erica Stanford. So the report is really really
important and it has to be a lesson of what
not to do in the future. In the first instance,
it is families who are failing these children. If families
were doing a good job, if families could protect their

(05:36):
own children, they wouldn't need to be taken away from them.
And as we have seen, there are woeful families committing
grievous harm on their children every single day. Oranga Tamariki
is worked off its feet and failing miserably as an
organization despite the best will of the social welfare workers.

(05:56):
So the lessons from the past must be taken into
the future because we haven't fixed anything. The only good
thing that's happened in the past fifty or sixty years
is that people can speak up now. When I was
growing up, you know, it was just starting to change.

(06:20):
But when I was growing up, the doctor, the policeman,
the principle, the priest, they were believed. They were respected
members of the community. And if you had said that,
I grew up in small towns too, and in small
towns these people, these people were boss. And if you

(06:44):
had said that the local policeman had hurt you or
tried to interfere with you, I'm not entirely sure you'd
have been believed. You'd probably been told off by your
parents for telling terrible, wicked lies. We had a pedophile
priest roaming around Saint John's when my brother was at
Saint John's. The kids all knew he was a pedo.

(07:09):
He'd come from somewhere else where he had been a pedo.
But rather than the church defrock him and expose him,
they sent him along to another school to commit more damage,
and my brother said he wasn't going to be an
old boy anymore, and Mum wept, because it is every
Catholic mother a child to be an older boy. Won't

(07:30):
you change your mind? No, he wasn't going to change
his mind anytime soon. And Mum said later, much many
years later, when it all came out that this man
was a filthy, depraved, opportunistic, intelligent, sadistic pedophile, that even
if my brother had said anything, She's not entirely sure
she'd have believed him, because she wouldn't have thought it

(07:52):
was possible a priest, a priest did what like such
was the power of the church and of authority figures seventies, sixties, fifties, forties.
They had almost they were almost omnipotent. Nobody could stop

(08:15):
them if they decided to do what they wanted, and
like finds, like pedos find other pedos, they like sharing
their filthy little secrets. The only thing that's changed, I think,
from back then, is that the covers of darkness have

(08:37):
been stripped away and those ghastly sluggish pedos have been
exposed to the full light of day. There is still
the most appalling abuse happening in homes. There is still
abuse happening in institutions, as we've seen with the reviews
of our own and Tomaeki, but it's being exposed far

(09:01):
more quickly, and hopefully we are learning better ways of
doing things. But it will be the kids, the kids
themselves who had to go through hell on Earth, who
will be the ones who'll be able to inform us
on how to do things better. But in the first instance,

(09:21):
love your kids, don't let them end up, and gear
don't hand over their souls and their bodies to other
people who are going to damage them. I mean, it's
utterly appalling reading, you know. But thank Heavens for the

(09:45):
courage and the bravery of those children, because it's the
children and adults bodies who spoke at the inquiry. It's
those children, Thank Heavens who had the courage to speak up,
who might just make things better for future generations.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
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