Apology & Redress Recommendations
Recommendation 2
Recommendation 4
Recommendation 2
The Prime Minister should make a national apology for historical abuse
and neglect in the care of the State (both direct and indirectly) in the
House of Representatives
Recommendation 3
Recommendation 4
Recommendation 2
Public acknowledgments and apologies for historical abuse and neglect
in the care of the State (both direct and indirectly provided care) and
faith‑based institutions should be made to survivors, their whānau and
support networks by:
- the most senior leaders of all faith‑based institutions and in particular, and without limitation...
Recommendation 4
Recommendation 4
Recommendation 4
- The Catholic Church’s principal representative in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Archbishop of Wellington and eighth ordinary of the see, should write to the Pope and the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life:
- expressing concern that brothers in the Hospitaller Order of the Brothers of St John of God who have been accused or convicted of sexual abuse and neglect in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have also been sent to Papua New Guinea, and little is known about the nature and extent of abuse and neglect there or the needs of potential survivors
- seeking an Apostolic visitation into the nature and extent of abuse and neglect by the Order in Papua New Guinea and the systemic factors leading to abuse and neglect by the Order in the Oceania province.
- The letter should be developed and agreed with a representative group of survivors. The letter and report from the Pope and the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life should be made public.
Recommendation 8
Recommendation 10
Recommendation 4
The government should take all practicable steps, including incentives and, if necessary, compulsion, to ensure that faith-based institutions and indirect care providers join the puretumu torowhānui system and scheme once it is established.
Recommendation 9
Recommendation 10
Recommendation 10
Representatives of faith‑based institutions and indirect care providers should meet with relevant State representatives and agree on what steps they can take, whether separately or together, to ensure that survivors, their whānau and support networks are made aware of the puretumu torowhānui system and scheme and support options available to them.
Recommendation 10
Recommendation 10
Recommendation 10
The government and faith‑based institutions should ensure that, once the puretumu torowhānui system and scheme is established:
- the effective start date for the system and scheme is 1 December 2021, to enable the whānau of survivors who have died since that date to be eligible for redress claims and the full range of support services available through the system and scheme.
- it is open to all survivors, including those who have been through all redress processes (including those that have been completed since 1 December 2021) whether or not any signed settlement agreement was full and final.
Recommendations from Royal Commission interim Report
Recommendation 1
Recommendation 1
Recommendation 1
The Crown should establish a puretumu torowhānui system to respond to abuse in State care, indirect State care and faith-based care that:
- acknowledges and apologises for tūkino, or abuse, harm and trauma, done to, and experienced by, survivors, their whānau, hapū, iwi, and hapori or communities.
- aims to heal and restore individuals’ mana, tapu and mauri.
- takes decisive and effective steps to prevent further abuse.
Recommendation 2
Recommendation 1
Recommendation 1
The puretumu torowhānui system, and those designing and operating it, should give effect to te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles and, in particular, to the right to tino rangatiratanga, or self-determination and authority, which includes the right to organise and live as Māori and to make decisions to advance the oranga of survivors through the provision of care to whānau, hapū and iwi by whānau, hapū and iwi. The requirement to give effect to te Tiriti should be expressly stated in any legislation and policy relating to abuse in care.
Recommendation 3
Recommendation 1
Recommendation 3
The puretumu torowhānui system should be consistent with the commitments Aotearoa New Zealand has under international human rights law, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Recommendation 4: founding principles for puretumu torowhānu
The puretumu torowhānui system should be founded on the following principles, values and concepts:
- Tukino: is, in this context, abuse, harm and trauma. It includes past, present or future abuse, whether physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, cultural or racial abuse; or neglect, which may also include medical, spiritual or educational neglect, experienced by individuals and their whānau, hapū, iwi and hapori or communities in the care of State and faith-based institutions.
- Purapura Ora is: in this context, refers to survivors and their potential to heal and regenerate in spite of the tukino they experienced.
- Te mana tāngata: is, in this context, the restoration of and respect for the inherent mana (power, dignity and standing) of people affected by tukino.
- Utua kia ea: is a process that must be undertaken to account for tu -kino and restore mana to achieve a state of restoration and balance. In this context, pathways of utua kia ea should include scope for survivors, both as individuals and collectively, to chart their own unique course.
- Manaakitia kia tipu: is, in this context, the nurturing of the oranga or wellbeing of survivors and their whānau so that they can prosper and grow. This includes treating survivors and their whānau with atawhai, humanity, compassion, fairness, respect and generosity in a manner that upholds their mana (this includes being survivor-focused and trauma-informed) and nurtures all dimensions of oranga including physical, spiritual, mental, cultural, social, economic and whānau, in ways that are tailored to, culturally safe for, and attuned to, survivors
- Mahia kia tika: is to be fair, equitable, honest, impartial and transparent. In this context it includes a puretumu torowhānui scheme that has clear, publicly available rules and other information about how it works, and regular reviews of its performance.
- Whakaahuru: in this context, refers to processes to protect and safeguard people including actively seeking out, empowering and protecting those who have been, or are being, abused in care as well as implementing systemic changes to stop and safeguard against abuse in care.
- Whanaungatanga: refers to the whakapapa, or kinship, connections that exist between people. In this context, it reflects that the impact of tūkino can be intergenerational and can also go beyond the individual and affect whānau, hapū, iwi and hapori or communities. Therefore, puretumu torowhānui should facilitate individual and collective oranga and mana, connection or reconnection to whakapapa, and cultural restoration.
- Teu le vā / tauhi vā: is the tending to and nurturing of vā, or interconnected relationships between people and places, to maintain individual and societal oranga. Where there has been abuse, harm or trauma steps must be taken to heal or re-build the vā and re-establish connection and reciprocity.
- He mana tō tēnā, tō tēnā – ahakoa ko wai: refers to each and every person having their own mana and associated rights, no matter who they are. In this context, it means that a new puretumu torowhānui system and scheme, and their underlying processes must value disabled people and diversity, accept difference, and strive for equality and equity. This includes challenging ableism – the assumptions and omissions that can make disabled people, the tūkino and neglect they experience and their needs for restoration of mana and oranga, invisible.
Recommendations from Royal Commission Interim Report
Recommendation 5
The Crown should establish and fund a well-resourced independent Māori Collective made up of Māori with relevant expertise and/or personal experience and representing a mix of survivors, whānau, hapū and iwi, pan-tribal organisations and urban Māori with a fair mix of gender, LGBTQIA+, rangatahi and Deaf and disabled people to: lead the design of the puretumu torowhānui scheme
Recommendation 6
The Crown should closely consult and actively involve survivors in the design and running of the puretumu torowhānui system and scheme and the implementation of recommendations in this report and other reports this inquiry may produce. This should include establishing and funding an independent Purapura Ora Collective employing people with relevant expertise and lived experience of disability to:
- advocate for survivors during Crown decision-making on our recommendations.
- ensure the puretumu torowhānui system and scheme are designed from the perspective of survivors.
- commission, together with the Māori Collective, the expert review of oranga services.
Recommendation 7
Recommendation 12
The Crown should consult survivors, experts and other interested people, including:
- Pacific peoples: on how the puretumu torowhānui scheme should be designed and run in a way that is consistent with Pacific cultures, including how the scheme and broader system can incorporate principles from Pacific restorative processes such as ifoga, fakalelei, isorosoro and ho’oponopono.
- Deaf and disabled people: on how the design and running of the scheme will give effect to New Zealand’s obligations in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the New Zealand Disability Strategy.
- including: A cross-section of survivors and experts: on how the scheme can be inclusive of a range of people, including youth and LGBTQIA+.
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 12
The Crown should set up a fair, effective, accessible and independent puretumu torowhānui scheme to help survivors and their whānau affected by abuse in State care, indirect State care and faith-based care to achieve utua kia ea or heal the vā, heal the relational space between all things, and help prevent abuse in care.
Recommendation 13
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 13
The principles, values, concepts, te Tiriti obligations and international law commitments that will guide the design of the puretumu torowhānui system should guide the design and implementation of the puretumu torowhānui scheme.
Recommendation 14
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 13
The membership of the governance body for the puretumu torowhānui scheme should give effect to te Tiriti o Waitangi, and reflect the diversity of survivors, including disabled survivors, as well as including people with relevant expertise.
Form and function of Schemes
Recommendation 16
The functions of the puretumu torowhānui scheme should be to:
- provide a safe, supportive environment, consistent with the value of manaakitia kia tipu, for survivors to talk about their abuse.
- consider survivors’ accounts and make decisions on puretumu torowhānui, which may include:
- facilitating acknowledgements and apologies by institutions for tūkino, or abuse, harm and trauma, in care
- facilitating access to support services, financial payments and other measures that enables te mana tāngata.
- disseminate information about the scheme so as many eligible individuals as possible know about and can access its services
- report and make recommendations on systemic issues relevant to abuse in care.
Recommendation 17
The puretumu torowhānui scheme should operate independently of the institutions where tūkino or abuse, harm and trauma took place and should have no interactions with these institutions or the people within them, except where necessary to carry out its functions, and this includes individuals or institutions:
- responsible for providing care to survivors
- allegedly responsible for the abuse
- responsible for defending any abuse in care claims in court.
Recommendation 18
Recommendation 18
- The puretumu torowhānui scheme should: be open to all survivors, including those who have been through previous redress processes, those covered by accident compensation, and those in prison or with a criminal record.
- enable whānau to continue a claim made by a survivor if the survivor dies, or make a claim on a survivor’s behalf if there is clear evidence that the survivor intended to apply to the scheme or had taken other steps to make a claim before their death.
- prioritise claims from elderly or seriously ill survivors, including making urgent interim payments to those survivors where appropriate.
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 18
The Crown should set up a fair, effective, accessible and independent puretumu torowhānui scheme to help survivors and their whānau affected by abuse in State care, indirect State care and faith-based care to achieve utua kia ea or heal the vā, heal the relational space between all things, and help prevent abuse in care.
Recommendation 13
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 13
The principles, values, concepts, te Tiriti obligations and international law commitments that will guide the design of the puretumu torowhānui system should guide the design and implementation of the puretumu torowhānui scheme.
Recommendation 14
Recommendation 12
Recommendation 13
The membership of the governance body for the puretumu torowhānui scheme should give effect to te Tiriti o Waitangi, and reflect the diversity of survivors, including disabled survivors, as well as including people with relevant expertise.
Recommendations about abuse covered by the scheme
Neglect
We consider neglect includes physical, emotional and psychological, medical, spiritual and educational neglect. The World Health Organisation has a comprehensive definition of neglect in the context of child abuse, and New Zealand law recognises a view of neglect that includes mental and emotional wellbeing.
Racial Abuse
The Human Rights Act 1993 makes “racial harassment” unlawful when it happens in particular places. It describes racial harassment as behaviour that:
- expresses hostility against, or brings into contempt or ridicule, any other person on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins of that person; and
- is hurtful or offensive to the person being harassed (whether or not the person communicates that to the harasser); and
- is either repeated, or of such a significant nature, that it has a detrimental effect on the person being harassed.
Cultural Abuse
Recommendation 19
- disconnection from culture, language, whakapapa or identity as a result of being placed in care institutions where a survivor’s own culture is not recognised or where their cultural connections are actively discouraged
- misidentification of ethnicity or cultural identity by a care institution denying a survivor knowledge of their culture, language, whakapapa or identity
- discriminatory or harmful treatment, including systemic or overt racism, by a caregiver or care institution because of a survivor’s cultural identity.
Recommendation 19
Recommendation 19
Recommendation 19
The puretumu torowhānui scheme should cover:
- physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, racial and cultural abuse in care, along with neglect, which may include medical, spiritual and educational neglect
- historical, contemporary and future claims of abuse in care.
Recommendation 20
Recommendation 19
Recommendation 20
The puretumu torowhānui scheme should, regardless of whether an institution still exists or has funds, cover abuse in:
- any State agency that assumed responsibility, either directly or indirectly, for the care of an individual when they were abused, including:
- State schools
- any individual, or any private, public or non-governmental organisation, including a service provider, to which the State passed on its authority or care functions, whether by delegation, contract, licence or in any other way
- any faith-based institution that assumed responsibility for the care of an individual when they were abused.
Recommendation 21
Recommendation 19
Recommendation 20
The Crown should give faith-based institutions and indirect State care providers a reasonable opportunity, say four to six months, to join the puretumu torowhānui scheme voluntarily before considering, if necessary, options to encourage or compel participation, including:
- not offering contracts to non-participating institutions
- terminating or not renewing any contracts with them
- revoking their charitable status
- making participation in the scheme compulsory.