Kerre Woodham: Thank heavens for the bravery of those who spoke at the Abuse in Care inquiry

For those older survivors of abuse in state and church care, I wonder if you ever, ever thought this day would come?  

When you could tell your story without fear of being further beaten and abused and called a liar. When you would be listened to and believed and told that the fault for what has happened to you, the grievous hurt that you have suffered, is not your fault.  

It's the fault of sadistic, depraved adults who should never have been put in the position of looking after vulnerable children. It's the fault of organisations that were so hell bent on protecting their holy reputations, that rather than punishing the abuser, they just sent him away, giving them new opportunities to hurt and destroy the lives of more young children. 

When you look at your own children or grandchildren, 7-year-old boys and girls – look at them - they are beautiful humans. Half baby, half child but you can see the full adult they're starting to become.  

So full of potential, so full of promise and they love life and they love you, and they trust you, and you wonder how on Earth any adult could betray that trust and brutally hurt the bodies and souls of those children?  

Well wonder no more. 2944 pages of evidence will tell you exactly how adults did that.  

It's the largest and most complex inquiry ever held in New Zealand, and thank you to all of those who took part. The Commission members, which must have been a grueling job and the witnesses.  

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care was six years in the making. And every page is a page of families. Families in the first instance, who either neglected their children, couldn't be bothered with their children, abused their children sufficiently, that the state intervened, and then in came the institutions and the churches.  

And they all failed these beautiful, vulnerable young people they were supposed to be protecting. The report was released to the public yesterday afternoon. It contains 138 recommendations and Parliament acknowledged receipt of the report, with speakers from across the House:   

“We like to think that abuse like this doesn't happen here in Aotearoa, New Zealand but it did, and it is a shameful chapter of our history that we must confront. And Mr. Speaker, this is a dark and sorrowful day in New Zealand's history. And it's important that as a country, we bring to the surface and we understand the hard truths of what happened so we can try and move forward together. And I say to the survivors, the burden is no longer yours to carry alone. The state is now standing here beside you, accountable and ready to take action.” 

That was Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. This is leader of the opposition Chris Hipkins:  

“Mr. Speaker, I want to address the Prime Minister and thank him for his words. Our government set up this inquiry and we made some changes. We changed the redress rules on an interim basis and we did set up the Survivor Experiences Board, but Prime Minister, we didn't do enough. And the ball now falls to you and your Government. This must be bigger than politics. Mr. Speaker, we owe it to the survivors and to future generations to finally deliver justice, and to finally end the ongoing abuse that happens in state care. This work will extend beyond the life of any one government, so we should work together to make sure that happens.”  

Which is quite true. And finally, Minister in Charge of the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry, Erica Stanford:   

“These are our most vulnerable and damaged tamariki, and this report tells us today that we must do better. And as a government, we are committed to delivering our response to the report with the respect and dignity it deserves. But today is about the survivors. Today we hear your stories. Today we acknowledge your bravery. And your bravery will not only correct the historic record, but it will determine our future. You are brave, we acknowledge you and we thank you.”  

The report is really, really important and it has to be a lesson of what not to do in the future. In the first instance, it is families who are failing these children. If families were doing a good job, if families could protect their own children, they wouldn't need to be taken away from them.  

And as we have seen, there are woeful families committing grievous harm on their children every single day. Oranga Tamariki is worked off its feet and failing miserably as an organisation, despite the best will of the social welfare workers, so the lessons from the past must be taken into the future because we haven't fixed anything.  

The only good thing that's happened in the past 50 or 60 years is that people can speak up now. When I was growing up it was just starting to change, but when I was growing up the doctor, the policeman, the principal, the priest, they were believed. They were respected members of the community and if you had said that the local policeman had hurt you or tried to interfere with you, I'm not entirely sure you'd have been believed. You'd have probably been told off by your parents for telling terrible wicked lies.  

We had a paedophile priest roaming around St. John's, when my brother was at St. John's. The kids all knew he was a paedo. He'd come from somewhere else where he'd been a paedo. But rather than the church defrock him and expose him, they sent him along to another school to commit more damage.  

And my brother said he wasn't going to be an altar boy anymore and mum wept because every Catholic mother wants the child to be an altar boy. Won't you change your mind? No. He wasn't going to change his mind any time soon.  

And Mum said later, many years later when it all came out that this man was a filthy depraved, opportunistic, intelligent, sadistic, paedophile, that even if my brother had said anything, she's not entirely sure she'd have believed him because she wouldn't have thought it was possible. A priest? A priest did what?  

Such was the power of the church and of authority figures in the 70s, 60s, 50s, 40s. They were almost omnipotent. Nobody could stop them if they decided to do what they wanted and like finds like.  

Paedos find other paedos. They like sharing their filthy little secrets. The only thing that's changed I think from back then is that the covers of darkness have been stripped away and those ghastly sluggish paedos have been exposed to the full light of day.  

There is still the most appalling abuse happening in homes. There is still abuse happening in institutions, as we've seen with the reviews of Oranga Tamariki, but it's being exposed far more quickly and hopefully we are learning better ways of doing things.   

But it will be the kids themselves, who had to go through hell on Earth who will be the ones who'll be able to inform us on how to do things better. But in the first instance, love your kids, don't let them end up in care, don't hand over their souls and their bodies to other people who are going to damage them. It’s utterly appalling reading.  

But thank heavens for the courage and the bravery of those children because it's the children in adults, bodies who spoke at the inquiry. It's those children, thank heavens, who had the courage to speak up, who might just make things better for future generations. 

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