The letter of apology the PM should send

DAVE ARMSTRONG

Office of the New Zealand Prime Minister 9th Floor, Beehive Wellington, New Zealand Kia ora tatou,

I am writing to the many victims who suffered abuse as children at the hands of state agencies before 1992.

Firstly, thank you for coming forward and telling your often harrowing stories to the Government’s Confidential Listening and Assistance Service. It took a lot of courage and my Government appreciates your contribution.

No child deserves to suffer the way you did, least of all from the institution which has been entrusted with their care.

Secondly, I would like to officially acknowledge that horrific and widespread sexual and physical abuse occurred.

Just how many children in state care were abused? Who knows? My minister say that 3.5 per cent of children who were in state care between the 1950s and 1992 have made complaints. That’s 1100. But that 1100 may be the tip of the iceberg. Some children might be too traumatised to publically acknowledge it. Others may simply not want to bring back bad memories. Others may have moved overseas or died.

Was this widespread abuse systemic? We simply don’t know. Even if the number of abused children was only 3.5 per cent of the total, which I doubt, that is unacceptable.

Would you send your child to a school where the principal said ‘There’s a 3.5 per cent chance of your child being abused this year. That’s only one per class’?

It is this lack of reliable information which has caused me to order an official independent inquiry into the abuse of children in state care. This has been called for by all political parties (except National, until now) and many other groups, including the Human Rights Commission.

Similar inquiries have been held in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, so it’s time for New Zealand to step up.

For a government to set up a Ministry of Vulnerable Children and not right the wrongs that were committed on vulnerable children in the past is hypocritical. But we also need to look forward and ensure that such horrific state abuse never happens again.

As the Confidential Listening and Assistance Service said in their report ‘if the state is to take children from their families then the quality of care needs at the very least to be better than the home they were taken from.’

That is why my Government is taking responsibility and setting up an independent complaints authority. Up until now the people dealing with complaints about abuse in state care were in the same department as those doing the abusing.

It is believed over 40 per cent of our prison population has a background in state care as a child or young person. If we can improve the current standard of state care there will be massive long-term social and financial benefits.

It is true that an inquiry could expose the Government to financial risk, but I believe the risks of not having an inquiry are far greater.

I have noticed Maori are overrepresented in the number of children in state care. That is why my government has resolved to work far more closely with iwi than we have been.

And finally can I say to the victims, on behalf of all New Zealand governments, we are truly sorry.

Our governments have apologised in the past for acts of abuse – including to the Samoan people, Asians who suffered discrimination and various iwi. When apologies are offered, the healing process is enhanced and we can all move on.

I sincerely hope that the official inquiry and independent complaints authority – that was recommended by a panel that listened to hundreds of victims of state abuse – will start a process of healing and reconciliation. It’s the least we can do.

Every day in New Zealand the state does wonderful things: it heals the sick, educates its young, protects its citizens, and provides a safety net for people in need. However, in the past, the state was involved in serious abuse. How can the state hope to stop the abuse of children by individuals when it has not publicly acknowledged or acted upon the abuse in which it was involved?

Would you send your child to a school where the principal said ’There’s a 3.5 per cent chance of your child being abused this year’?

Nga mihi Bill English Prime Minister of New Zealand