The apology is one thing. But some advocates say there are survivors who are expecting unrealistic payouts.

Apology

Erica Stanford, the minister leading the government response to the inquiry, has announced a Parliamentary apology on November 12 for the State's failures across successive governments.

Some government agency chief executives are expected to apologise as well on that day.

Compensation

"Everybody's just on tenterhooks" said survivor advocate Ruth Money (pictured).

Some lawyers had been hyping up expectations of big payouts, she said. Some survivor circles spoke of individual payouts as high as $3.6 million.

"You literally spend hundreds of hours explaining to survivors, in very long, distressing phone calls, that our system is very different and there's no way a survivor in New Zealand is going to get anywhere near that amount of money."

Many survivors are hypervigilant and still mentally fragile, Money said.

"It's easier for us to see, from the outside looking in. It's not our lived experience. We don't have the PTSD triggers."

Royal Commission findings

The Abuse in Care inquiry found evidence of abuse and failures in many places entrusted to care for children and young people.

Survivor Mike Ledingham said he did not see the point of the apology without meaningful change.

He doesn't think leaders of many religious or state institutions can be trusted to address abuse allegations fairly even today.

He's pleased though that the Commission helped expose wrongdoing and New Zealanders now know how rampant it had been.

He says that was a big change from a generation ago, or even from five years ago. When he and his brother first spoke publicly about their abuse in 2002, they were threatened with death.

Verbal abuse and threats continued until the Royal Commission began in 2018. Now there are virtually none.

Failure to deliver

Murray Heasley of the Network for Survivors of Abuse in Faith-Based Institutions attended a number of early Commission hearings.

"The Royal Commission, which promised so much and which we encouraged people to engage with ... has failed to deliver" he said.

He is concerned about the effect the Commission has had on survivors.

In his view it became increasingly unsafe, awash with bureaucracy and identity politics.

"The majority of our survivors feel they've been ghosted" Heasley told the Herald.

"They're extremely anxious, they feel betrayed."

Most have low expectations, though some are still hopeful "that historic survivors will get some redress and the Government will acknowledge that it's urgent" he said.

Source

The New Zealand Herald

The Daily Record says it found the judge who chaired the inquiry for seven years was paid the same amount for two weeks' work as some survivors received in compensation for a lifetime of suffering.

The judge (Lady Smith) has received almost £2million in salary and pension contributions so far.

Another professional had retired on a police pension after 33 years. Then he chaired Redress Scotland (the body that sets compensation levels), earning £34,193 for around 12 weeks work.

In comparison, compensation sums can be as little as £10,000.

The Daily Record says the judge's earnings and pension contributions of £1.96million add up to the same average award shared between 40 victims.

Redress Scotland

Set up in 2021, Redress ­Scotland has awarded "more than £30 million" to "more than 600 applicants" so far. That's an average of £50,000 per claim.

One victim, who was abused in care and has battled addiction and homelessness as a result, is appalled.

"There doesn't seem to be a limit on money paid to the professionals. But they can decide that my abuse was worth £100,000, or as pitiful a sum as £10,000, or somewhere in between.

"The Scottish Government is good at finding work for the rich and powerful, but not so good at ­recognising that every child who was abused lost their childhood and it marked them for life.

"How can you value that, and what qualifies anyone to say what our abuse was worth?"

Another said: "I feel totally sickened.

"I know there has to be a process and professionals involved have to be paid, but the ­decision makers have decided our suffering, no matter what it involved, is worth a maximum £100,000.

"You could have been abused every day of your childhood, been beaten, sexually abused, forced to eat stale food, even your own vomit, and it's £100,000 at most.

"Yet some of those deciding, and in most cases setting the figure lower, can earn huge sums. Can they and the Scottish Government not see that it's problematic, that it's yet another punch in the gut to us?"

Redress Scotland can award £10,000, £20,000, £40,000, £60,000, £80,000 or £100,000.

Ordinary panel members are paid £390 a day. Most sit on a part-time basis.

Abuse victims have to repeat their evidence with their lawyers to prepare statements for Redress Scotland.

"I've made statements to the police twice and made further statements to the inquiry team. That involved days and days of reliving the worst times in my life. Ministers and their advisers must realise we are re-traumatised every time."

Government comment

The Scottish Government notes the inquiry is "one the widest-ranging ­... undertaken in Scotland and is vitally important in recognising the harm that has been caused to survivors of abuse in care.

"It is also crucial in ensuring lessons are learned to protect children in future."

Source

• Daily Record

Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes, who was chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development when the survivors made their claims, today apologised unreservedly at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care's State Institutional Response.

"What happened to those who were abused in care, should not have happened. And I deeply regret that it did," Hughes said. Read more

In evidence from survivors given to the Royal Commission last month there was often criticism of the Crown's tactics.

"Tactics is a word that I perhaps wouldn't use. I would just say litigation steps. Both the Crown as defendant and the survivors as plaintiffs took steps in response to what the other one does. Litigation kind of works like that, that you take 'ah, there is a defence, have I got an answer to the defence', and the steps follow."

Solicitor-General Una Jagose believes the Crown's understanding of an abuse survivor's viewpoint has evolved over time.

Beale, who is 69, was first admitted as a patient at the Kimberley Centre, near Levin at the age of 10 and spent 44 years there.

He functions at a very basic intellectual level.

Beale has no awareness of physical danger and can not make decisions for himself. Continue reading

Intellectual disabilities support organisation IHC will give evidence on behalf of the man, who died in 2006, as the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry continues this week. Continue reading

Chassy Duncan, 31, spoke to the Royal Commission via an audiovisual link in the Falkland Islands.

He is currently in prison in Port Stanley along with two other fishers after being convicted of assault.

Duncan is serving an 8-month sentence.

He was 10 years old when taken into state care.

His mother was struggling with him and one day after slapping him, she freaked out and called in social welfare for help.

Instead of helping, the department took her son away. Continue reading

Earl White, which is a pseudonym to protect his identity, gave evidence to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission sitting in Auckland on Thursday.

White was physically abused by his father and step-father before going to the Epuni Boys' Home and Hokio Beach School.

On arrival at the Epuni Boys' Home, he was placed in a secure unit for a few days and only allowed out for one hour a day. Continue reading