This post is to honour all survivors from State Care of NZ including Māori and Non-Māori
My post is lengthy to acknowledge their long hard arduous journey to seek justice and they too continue to WAIT
Te Tiriti o Waitangi protects both Māori and Non-Māori citizens of New Zealand.
Initially, I worked with both Māori and non-Māori whanau who struggled to access quality education for their children.
I now work with whanau who are significantly harmed by the actions of representatives (employees) of our government agencies in particular Oranga Tamariki ( OT ~ Ministry for Children), Family Courts (Ministry of Justice), Ministry of Social Development (MSD), Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Health (MoH).
I have worked with survivors of Abuse in State and Faith-based Care.
ABUSE IN STATE CARE - THEY ALL KNEW
Far too many people in New Zealand especially those currently working in our government agencies have no knowledge of this and they should.
They continue to perpetuate the harmful practices from the past with their ignorance.
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and Faith-based Institutions from 1950 - 1999
Reflect on this because it is what we continue to face.
The State refused to listen to our children.
They disregarded and ignored our children.
But worse than that they continued to cause harm to our children KNOWING that our children were crying for help
In the 1950's, Selwyn Leeks in our mental asylums including Lake Alice, Wanganui with the support and knowledge of government agencies and our government were using our children for experiments, torturing our children by using Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) against their wishes including on their genitals.
The survivors made complaints to the relevant agencies and to the government and provided evidence. They were effectively ignored and disregarded despite the evidence.
They then had to go to the United Nations which heard them and ruled in their favour.
WHY would we have to go to the United Nations overseas to get them to tell our government the obvious?
WHO covered that cost?
As an educated nation, WHY would we need to have the additional cost of a Royal Commission of Inquiry
THE HERE AND NOW
APPARENT COLLUSION
I work with the evidence before me gathered from different government agencies and non-government agencies by way of Official Information Act and Privacy Act requests.
One agency may heavily redact but another agency will not. Hence, I will find enough evidence to give me most of the pieces to the puzzle. Enough compelling information to reveal the truth.
This is what we all must be aware of.
The Ombudsmen, the Privacy Commission, judges, lawyers especially Crown Law can access all that information - UNREDACTED.
Therefore, they would KNOW the truth long before me
The evidence before me appears to show in some cases, collusion between government agencies and non-government agencies.
The evidence comes from a range of people across New Zealand so I know it is not isolated - it is systemic
The evidence before me also appears to show that the ombudsmen, regulatory authorities and commissioners are so inundated and overwhelmed that they fail to see the significance of what we are telling them.
I do not think it is intentional on their part however the people I work with are so frustrated that they "believe" that they are part of collusion with the "State".
This adds yet another barrier to the process.
It becomes extremely difficult for both sides to get a resolution to big problems when there are so many barriers.
Quite frankly, the best place to resolve these "big issues" is in a court of Law. The public should be supported by Crown Law as government agencies and schools have access to their legal teams.
Once a judgement or declaration has been made in a Court of Law then everyone has clarity of the law until the next person wades into Court.
It is the Law that sets rules to keep us all safe. It is the Law that should guide the way people work. It is the Law that holds us to account
As the public who are harmed cannot access the Law then they get no justice. Nothing changes.
There is no justice in New Zealand.
There is only power and control by the State.
It is my opinion that the State continues to abuse our children however it has gone underground and is insidious. Abuse is ongoing and daily psychological abuse from discrimination, exclusion and failure to resolve conflict.
CONSEQUENCES FOR OUR CHILDREN NOW AND INTO THE FUTURE
Our children are denied access to quality education.
That will be an adverse factor that will cause negative ongoing and long-term outcomes.
That is the burden that we place upon them.
One that they will have to carry.
Some will overcome.
Many will not.
Many will do it alone and suffer alone.
That is what we all have to acknowledge and accept before transformational change can happen
The one thing that will protect them in the future and give them the capability to rise up from the ashes of their despair and soar like a phoenix to break through the ceilings placed upon them is EDUCATION
These agencies also known as (aka) the "State" are tasked to work in the best interests of the children.
Far too often, they do not.
Their failure to do so places pressure upon the wider system.
The responsibility to ensure each of our government agencies does what they are tasked to do lies with the Chief Executive Officers (CEO's). In regards to the Ministry of Education, the CEO is the Secretary for Education, Iona Holsted.
The responsibility to ensure that our government agencies do what they are tasked to do lies with the Commissioner of the Public Services Commission, Peter Hughes.
Non-Government Organisations (NGO's) are now working beyond their scope of practice to deliver support, resources and funding to the "victims" of the "State".
Many are contracted to government agencies and are dependent on them for funding.
Very often their hands are tied due to their relationship with government agencies. If they speak out against the government and the government agency, they risk a breach of contract or loss of funding.
I have seen an increase in mistrust towards government agencies and those non-government organisations who contract to government agencies.
People come to me because I am totally independent of the "State". I acknowledge that I have a "conscious bias" against government agencies and so I have to refer to the evidence before me and seek supervision to minimise "conscious bias".
Our Ombudsman, Independent Police Complaints Authority and Commissioners (Privacy Commissioner, Children's Commissioner, and others) are our "watchdogs". They should be independent.
They monitor our government agencies and investigate complaints by the public against the actions of government agencies.
Our Regulatory Authorities (Teachers Council, Social Workers Registration Board and others) are tasked to protect the public and to keep them safe from the professionals. They should be independent.
The Ombudsman, Commissioners and Regulatory Authorities are overwhelmed, under-resourced and underfunded. They have limited powers.
The responsibility to finance our Ombudsmen, Commissioners and Regulatory Authorities lies with the Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour Party)
MOVING FORWARD ~ ACTIVE PARTICIPATION AT THE DECISION MAKING TABLE
As members of the public, we have the "opportunity" to be a "voice" and to be part of the decision-making process on Governance Boards and on Advisory Groups within government agencies.
Sadly, we have faced Senior Disability Advisors within government agencies who do not represent the "voice" of people with a disability. They did not represent us.
It appeared that they were working more for the agency than us, members of the disability community.
We can apply to be Chief Executive Officers of a government agency and we can be an Ombudsman or a Commissioner
The government expects statutory boards to represent the diversity and demographic make-up of New Zealand, including gender, ethnicity, age and geographic location.
The Ombudsman are appointed by and answer to Parliament, so they’re independent of the government. (Formally they’re appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the House of Representatives, which in practice means that Parliament appoints them.)
This is the barrier we face.
Everyone who gets into these positions is "selected"
It is the selection process that is stacked against us.
The people that need to be there are very often "blacklisted"
The decision of who is selected onto statutory boards is made by the Minister of Parliament and that goes back to those sitting on the Cabinet
The Cabinet of New Zealand (Māori: Te Rūnanga o te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa[n 1]) is the New Zealand Government's body of senior ministers, accountable to the New Zealand Parliament. Cabinet meetings, chaired by the prime minister, occur once a week; in them, vital issues are discussed and government policy is formulated
REDRESS AND CHANGE FOR SURVIVORS OF ABUSE IN CARE
Reflect on what I have shared specifically the what the survivors had to do to get heard and get their Royal Inquiry and the power imbalance
Consider the selection process
Is it equitable?
WHO holds the POWER?
WHO has been selected to represent the Chief Executives of the Government Agencies?
Are they appropriate?
WHO holds the knowledge?
Has CROWN LAW disclosed ALL the KNOWLEDGE that they hold with us all?
WHO is responsible for educating the public about this travesty?
WHY has it taken so long to get REDRESS?
I attach the link to the Institutional Responses by the State to assist you with your thinking
I draw your attention to the Institutional response by Iona Holsted, Secretary for Education who has been "selected" to be Chair of the Sponsoring Group
CROWN RESPONSE UNIT - ABUSE IN STATE CARE
About
The Crown Response Unit was set up in February 2019 to coordinate and drive the Government’s response to the Royal Commission. The Unit is an autonomous unit housed within Oranga Tamariki.
The Unit makes sure agencies respond quickly and helpfully to the Royal Commission’s information requests and recommendations through to June 2023, when the Royal Commission will end.
Principles-based approach to the Crown response
The Crown is committed to a principles-based approach in its dealings with the Royal Commission and survivors of abuse in care. The six principles setting out how the Crown will respond to the Royal Commission are:
- manaakitanga – that is, treating people with the compassion, fairness, and respect that upholds the mana of all those involved
- openness – being receptive to new ideas, and to reconsidering how things have been done in the past and the way agencies operate now
- transparency – sharing knowledge and information held by the Crown, including the reasons behind key actions
- learning – listening attentively to survivors, learning from the Royal Commission, and using that information to improve systems
- being joined up – agencies working together closely, helped by a dedicated secretariat and chief executive sponsoring group, to make sure government engagement with the Royal Commission is coordinated and resulting actions on recommendations are collectively owned, and
- meeting obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi – honouring the Treaty principles, meeting Crown obligations and building a stronger Māori-Crown relationship through the way the Crown operates and behaves during this process and after it, when implementing its lessons.
Another significant part of the Unit's work is responding to the Royal Commission's interim report on redress, which recommended a new, independent, trauma-informed redress system. Find out more about our work.
Outcomes
The Crown would like to see the following outcomes from the Royal Commission process:
- survivors are heard, and feel heard
- harm is acknowledged
- the government care system is improved
- this type of harm never happens again
- Māori experiences and their impacts are recognised and respected
- disabled peoples’ experiences and their impacts are recognised and respected.
Governance and management
Strategic governance of the Crown Response is provided by a Sponsoring Group made up of the Chief Executives from:
- Ministry of Education
- Manatū Hauora - Ministry of Health
- Ministry of Social Development
- Oranga Tamariki
- Whaikaha-Ministry of Disabled People
- the Crown Law Office.
The Chair of the Sponsoring Group is the Secretary of Education, Iona Holsted.
The Minister for the Public Service, Hon Chris Hipkins, is the Minister responsible for the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Inquiry.
An interagency group oversees and helps coordinate agencies' contributions to the Crown Response. The group includes representatives of the following agencies most directly involved in State care, or holding key records about care history:
- Ministry of Social Development
- Oranga Tamariki
- Manatū Hauora - Ministry of Health
- Ministry of Education
- Department of Corrections
- Ministry of Justice
- Archives New Zealand
- New Zealand Police
- Te Puni Kōkiri
- Te Kawa Mataaho - Public Service Commission,
- Whaikaha-Ministry of Disabled People
- Crown Law Office
- ACC
Our Director
Isaac Carlson has been appointed Director of the Crown Response to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Isaac (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne) was previously Head of Injury Prevention at ACC, where he worked since 2007 across all aspects of prevention, care and recovery. He has worked collaboratively across the public sector in strengthening partnerships, supporting the delivery of public sector strategies, and supporting the development of whānau-centred well-being models.
Isaac starts his role on 1 February 2023. He replaces Alana Ruakere, who has taken up the position of chief executive of Tui Ora Ltd, an iwi-based social services provider in New Plymouth.
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