Abuse in state care worse than thought and still happening - report
(Photo / Getty)
Abuse in New Zealand institutions is more significant than first thought and continues to the present day, a Royal Commission of Inquiry has concluded in its first report.
The report, Tawharautia: Purongo a te Wa, details the findings from private and public hearings held so far in the five-year inquiry, which began in 2018 under the Coalition Government and covers the period between 1950 and 1999.
In all, 1900 survivors and 350 witnesses are taking part, along with state institutions such as the Ministry of Social Development and Ministry of Education, and faith-based institutions like churches and religious schools.
Abuse survivors re-traumatised and frequently disbelieved by Government focused on protecting public funds — Royal Commission of Inquiry
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Chris Hipkins: New Zealand at its absolute worse
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Public Service minister Chris Hipkins addresses the interim report of findings by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care that was released in December 2020. (Video first published in December 2020)
A young boy who had experienced “extreme” psychological and physical abuse drove a car off a cliff, smashing head-on into a bank, in an attempt to take his own life. No one at the New Zealand state boys’ home he had run away from cared or even recognised his call for help. Instead, as punishment for the act, he was bashed and beaten with a strap, forced to do thousands of press-ups and run around holding a 44-gallon drum.