Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will deliver a formal apology. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A day those abused in care have fought decades for has arrived, as the government prepares to formally apologise.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was the largest, longest, most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, spanning six years and collecting the evidence and experiences of more than 2400 survivors.
It delivered 138 recommendations, but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government's response essentially boiled down to three things: acknowledgement and a formal apology, support for the survivors, and preventing the abuse from happening again.
"There's lots of things to be very, very proud about in New Zealand's history, but we also have to confront the ugliness in it as well, and this is one of those moments," he said.
The formal apology will begin in the morning, with survivors at locations around the country tuning into livestreamed proceedings at Parliament, where a ballot-selected group of abuse survivors will also gather.
They will hear apologies from government department heads and statements from survivors before the formal apology delivered by the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition.
New legislation aimed at preventing further abuses will then be tabled and debated, passing through its first reading in what the Lead Minister for the Response Erica Stanford said would be the first step in the government's response.
What they won't receive - yet - is redress.
Survivors and advocates had expressed unease at the lack of a redress and compensation system alongside the apology.
Lead Minister for the Response Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Stanford promised more details would be revealed early next year. She said survivors were feeling "extraordinarily emotional".
"It's going to be a huge day for them, and I want to make sure we get it right [Tuesday]," she said. "We have been poring over every little detail [Tuesday] to make sure we have all of the supports in place that we get everything right. We learnt some lessons from the tabling ... we don't want to make those mistakes again."
She said it had been a theme of her engagements with the survivors that they always asked how she was holding up.
"Which is extraordinary. But they're nervous about [Tuesday] - they know the significance of it, and as I say, they've been waiting for decades for this apology, and it will be enormously significant to them."
Luxon - normally outspoken about the need to keep costs down - confirmed a redress sum would be included in next year's Budget, but otherwise refused to outline where exactly the funding would be coming from.
"There's spending that may even be needed to keep moving through the process before we get to Budget as well but, look, we will deal with those issues and the funding side of it. What's important for us is the design, and given all the feedback we've had from the redress design group that's what we're trying to digest right now."
It was not cost that was holding up the redress process, he said.
"There is, frankly, no amount of money that makes any of this okay for any of the survivors ... we've started at a different point, which is to say, look, we've got a redress system that has been in place in New Zealand now for 20 years, we know the frustrations that many of the survivors have spoken to us about that, we know we have to build a better redress system."
Survivors will be waiting, watching, and hoping for justice.
Luxon, as prime minister, will be expected to provide some measure of that.
"I know there is nothing I can do or say that will ever make up for what survivors endured," he said at Monday's briefing, "but I do hope that in some small way the apology might help with their healing."
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