Survivors of abuse in care arrived at Parliament today to hear the formal apology from the state which oversaw and inflicted harm on children.
Public sector leaders from Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry of Health, New Zealand Police, and Ministry of Education also apologised, as did the public service commissioner and the solicitor-general, at an event preceding Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s national apology in the House.
By the afternoon, many survivors were still trying to absorb what had been said and what it meant, with some saying it was a “PR stunt,” some calling the speeches “hollow” and others not willing to believe the words until they saw action.
Ken Clearwater, a long-time advocate for survivors, was at the event, saying he heard some great words but it was about “what action needs to go with it”.
“Everyone’s saying the right things, but if you look at the policies and stuff we have at the moment, that’s not helping our children.”
He believed National was going to have to change a lot of their policies.
“So we’re apologising for what happened in the past, but the policies are still in place that are making it no different than when we were in the past.
“To have hollow words at this stage would be, would be pretty dangerous.”
He said there had to be a belief the government would look into things, “but there’s got to be a survivor voice”.
He mentioned Tu Chapman, a survivor who spoke at the event, who pointed out only having five minutes to speak as a survivor at an apology for survivors.
“So once again, the survivor voice is not forefront, and I think that that’s what they’re going to have to look at, is how they get more more of the survivor voice in whatever policies they look at.”
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