News & Events

Some senior public servants implicated in the state abuse cover-up remain in positions of power – including Solicitor-General Una Jagose and Education Secretary Iona Holsted. Now the minister leading the Government’s response to the watershed report has put officials on notice. The minister in charge of the Government’s response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry…

NZ Royal Commission – Abuse in Care Reports Publications and other relevant information about the official New Zealand Royal Commission – Abuse in Care. Visit official website. Royal Commission Publications Other Commission Reports

From the Featherston girls’ home they were stuck in, Joyce Harris and her 14-year-old twin sister Toni planned an escape. They followed the railway tracks, which led them to the Remutaka Tunnel. Built in 1955, the tunnel is almost 9km long. It remains the country’s longest. “We walked through it and every so many feet…

The 112 politicians and senior public servants who oversaw decades of harm and neglect, plus those who have been asked to apologise. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care finds that a successive list of senior ministers and public servants were at fault for allowing, or failing to stop, an…

Despite the many, many recommendations in today’s final inquiry report, there are still some glaring omissions, writes Steve Goodlass. I’ve previously been critical about the abuse in care inquiry’s productivity and the actual independence of the inquiry process. The final report and its recommendations haven’t shifted that viewpoint – in fact, I’m even more concerned than before.…

Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen. My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit send and let me…

The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness…

Almost a third of people in state and faith-based institutions between 1950 and 2019 were abused, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care has found, describing it as a “disgrace” and a “stain” on the national character. The commission’s report released to the public today said that would remain so if the “gross…

Faith-based care institutions had higher rates of sexual abuse than state care, the landmark Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care has found. The inquiry found that Catholic institutions reported the highest levels of sexual abuse, alongside Dilworth School in Auckland and Marylands School in Christchurch. Additionally, it highlighted how the moral authority of…

E hara taku toa I te takitahi. Te toa takitini My strength is not as an individual, but as a collective When we gave our opening at the Faith-based Phase 1 Hearing of the Abuse in Care Royal Commission on November the 30th, 2020, we used another Māori aphorism to talk about the critical importance…

The Royal Commission on Abuse in Care next week delivers its much-delayed final report. But an earlier report, filed in December 2021, said abuse survivors needed an independent payment scheme urgently. So why hasn’t it happened? Mike Ledingham turned 74 last week, and survived an aneurysm last year. He hopes to live long enough to…

A Christchurch park and road have been renamed to remove the reminder of the dark past of Marylands School. From Thursday, the former Marylands Reserve and Marylands Place will be known as Validation Park and Validation Place, in honour of the survivors of abuse at the school which used to sit on the site. The residential facility for boys –…